


Halves of a Whole - A Homestuck/Pac Rim Crossover

by ThreeAM



Category: Homestuck, Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: A little bit of fluff a little bit of death a little bit of GIANT ROBOTS FIGHTING GIANT MONSTERS, AU, Alcohol use and references, Completed, Dave/Jade is the main ship and while the others occur they aren't nearly as prevalent, F/F, F/M, I'm no George R.R. Martin so a lot of the secondary characters don't appear a lot, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Later on there may be depictions of violence, Pac Rim AU, Pacific Rim - Freeform, Possible use of slurs by minor characters, Terezi and Vriska are sisters, fun for the whole family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-15
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-24 22:03:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 47,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1618601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThreeAM/pseuds/ThreeAM
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the monsters came from the depths, Jade lost the only guardians she had ever known. Now she's a Ranger in training, sworn to prevent the same tragedy that befell her tiny family from happening to anyone else's, but she's years too late to save the Striders'.</p><p>When the monsters came from the depths, they sank Dave's dreams to the bottom of the ocean with his brothers' Jager. Now he teaches what he can't do. He may be Jade's trainer, but he's the one who has the most to learn.</p><p>When the monsters came from the depths, they made two people grow into adults when they should have been kids. Now they're broken, halved from their purpose, with nobody to pick up the pieces but themselves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Kaiju Blues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was a wonder that Jade got this far. The odds were certainly not in her favor, all things considered. She had been receiving threats all day, accusations of cheating, parents declaring they were going to sue SOMEBODY, etc. But everyone was used to this; only one girl and one boy graduated each year from each Jaeger Pilot Training Academy across the nation. The other thousands of students were sent home, and repeats were not an option; the age limit for entry level students were strict. Only the ripest and the best, in the interest of global security, were tolerated in the Jaeger program.

Jade, a scholarship student, was one of the brightest and best.

Of course, she was only out of the frying pan at this stage, and straight into the fire. After acceptance, you went to HQ itself where they tediously face every candidate with every other male and female candidates from the 14 schools across the nation, chose the two who were most compatible, and sent the rest home. That meant, if there were about 2,000 students per school, you had a 1:14,000 chance of actually becoming a pilot. 

At least having 'Graduated Jaeger pilot school' on your McDonalds resume would probably still get you hired, right?

Currently, students (including herself) were all gathered at Washington International Airport, and Jade was taking in the other graduates. Most campuses separated boys' and girls' halves, so she had only met the boy from her school an hour ago when they got in the car for the trip to the airport. He was not a talkative fellow, and would probably have a sore foot -- Jade didn't take kindly to being judged based on her scholarship status. This pretty much set her mood toward males for the rest of the car trip to be a simmering grumpiness, however now that she was surrounded by another 28 people who could share her fellow graduate's opinions, she shouldn't have been half as bold. To her surprise, however, most of them looked solemn. They had said goodbye to any parents they had at their respective schools -- most would be home to see them again soon. The two who triumphed would see them every three months on their week of leave. It sounded a little harsh, but according to the government, family visits were not as important as slam dunking some aliens back into the drink. 

Jade, having the biased perspective of no living relatives, tended to agree with them.

"Could you cut that out?" A voice, sudden and sharp, cut into Jade's train of thought. She looked up to see a girl sitting across from her. The girl was lean, like Jade, but seemed to be quite a bit taller. Her eyes, which were outlined in black with admirable precision, were squinted at Jade's confused expression with a look of disdain. "The pen. Tap it again and i'll give you a lobotomy with it, understand?"

Taken aback by the harsh comment, Jade looked at the pen in her hand, only now realizing she had subconsciously been nervously tapping it on the arm of the chair while she sat with the other candidates in the boarding lounge. Was this pen even hers? When did she pick it up? She hoped quietly she hadn't stolen someone's tool for crosswords or sodok--

"You know what a pen is, scholarship?" The voice was recognizable as the dark-haired snob from her school. Jade didn't look up, but went red and immediately shoved the pen in her pocket as everyone in earshot sniggered. 

In case it wasn't clear, Pilot school was expensive, prestigious, and reserved for people whose parents could afford to send them, or very lucky smart people who managed to get scholarships. The negative stigma was that they used disabilities or race or some other disadvantage to get themt he scholarship. It wasn't a secret that Jade had no parents, but she didn't want to think that was the reason. Guiltily, she had selected it in her application for the grant, but she had impeccable grades and extracurricular credit -- surely that counted for more?

The other students didn't care, of course. When they got on the plane, some of the graduates were already mingling. Jade found an empty seat in the back rows and slept most of the three hour flight to the east coast, and only the flight attendant thought to wake her when they landed.


	2. A Range of Rangers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the candidates meet their trainers.

HQ was a lot of things. 'Cosy' was not one of them.

For the majority of the induction tour, Jade had shamelessly spent more of her time letting her eyes wander across the rooms and walls than actually listening to or paying attention where they were and where they were going. At the end of the trip she barely knew right from left, but there was a priceless feeling of nervous excitement in her gut. This was going to be the biggest experience of her life, and she was determined to win.

Even if it meant trying to suck up to people she hated.

Actually, it wasn't so bad. Her and the other graduates sat together int he cafeteria and, against all odds, she had gotten her first spark of inspiration to pursue friendships when she responded to another person's amazement at how such a large door (in the hangar) could open and shut so quickly on its own, and she responded with the simple science behind it, much to the appreciation of the others at the table. After that, she spoke a bit easier, and though she could tell they didn't really think highly of her, it was a start. Looking over the table, she thought to herself "one of these people is going to be my co-pilot," pushing away the nagging thought in her mind that none of them stuck her as an interesting or agreeable person. She couldn't afford to be picky with friends, especially when her prospective partners were all respectively picky enough for the both of them. She had her work cut out for her.

A girl she didn't especially mind was named Bronte. She was a mousy girl, but she made up for lack of mass with speed. They struck up conversation on the way back to their dorms, and Jade found conversation between them flowed quite easily. They were both fans of firearms, although her affiliation was more of a sport thing -- Jade had often hunted with her Grandpa before his accident. It was a point of connection and they talked while they unpacked their clothes into the dressers provided and got ready for what would be their first training session with their professional tutors.

For training, as Jade heard in the breif before she stopped listening, the group of 28 would be split into four groups of seven, each with a duo of trainers to oversee them. One of these trainers, at least, is a current or retired Jaeger pilot. This would probably excite most people -- pilots were celebrities after all -- but Jade only felt pressured. They had seen the real world, so how trivial did the ideologies of a child seem to them? She supposed she was about to find out.

\---

Damn, these people wasted nooooo time. Immediately upon arrival in their funny-smelling new navy wifebeaters and grey sweatpants to the rec room, they were split off based purely on their order of arrival. A tall man with dark, long hair ordered them off into four, and Jade simply followed to where hepointed as she searched the room with her eyes. The first time she had been here, the room was empty except for the tour group. Now, there were eight people standing in pairs on a short, stage-like platforms above where they grouped. Jade didn't have time to study them closely as they were addressed as soon at they were sorted by the long-haired man.

"Welcome to the rec room. This is where you will be spending every morning of the seven-day week, with your peers, while your tutors oversee your instruction in the weeks leading up to 'D-Day'." The man had a long, stalking gait as she walked in front of the groups, all lined up at the end of the room with their new tutors' eyes on the backs of their necks. "If you're planning on sucking up to them, trying to gain favor or affection, don't. You're only wasting their time, your own time, and everyone else's time, as they will not be the judges on the day of your exam. They are your friends, they are your family, they are your teachers and your superiors, they are whatever they need to be to get from you the full and complete dedication you will need to pass this exam. All of you could leave here after this program. One or two could stay -- quiet!" He suddenly barked at the murmurs that erupted. One? Two? None? Apparently, the deal wasn't sealed. What if nobody was good enough? "One or two of you could stay. All that depends on how well you can take advice and follow orders, and how well you communicate with others. I wish you all the very best of luck. I'll leave it to you, guys."

Jade, with a suddenly crushed resolve, turned to face the two surprisingly young men standing behind her group. One, tall and statuesque, seemed like a chiseled sculpture someone dug out of the pantheon and brought to life. His hair was golden blonde, and he seemed the kind of person who would appear in some kind of gladiatorial movie. He was so imposing, that his partner, who looked like he was no older than her and her peers, almost went unnoticed to her eye.

He was not as tall of as toned, but he was obviously fit. His skin was also paler, and dotted with freckles over his nose and on his elbows and shoulders. His hair was much lighter than his friends, and in a neatly styled long crew cut sorta thing, long enough that he had to sweep his bangs aside over his shades to see, and the back was kind of a messy spike reminiscent of the man next to him (whose do was like a porcupine at a clash concert). The sharp cut of their noses and the way they both stood indicated to her immediately that they were related. 

"Aight listen up," spoke up the smaller one. "You can call me Dave, this is my Bro. He's an ex pilot of the Puppet's Gambit, and you're lucky to have someone as skilled as he is on your side. Don't let his silence deter you, he's a pretty understanding guy. We have two rules here that are all you need to know before we begin. One, you do not ask questions about his career. Two, we are very strict about punctuality. You being on time can mean the difference between a city of million being safe or dead. That said, anyone who arrives after we do will hang off that by only heir hands," with a bo staff he held, her pointed to a set of monkey bars next to some weightlifting equipment and a chin-up bar. "Any questions?"  
"Yeah!" The girl who threatened to give Jade a pen lobotomy was in the group, she just noticed, along with Bronte, and four others she didn't know the names of confidently. "Are you a pilot too? What's Bro's real name? Does he talk?"  
Dave seemed unimpressed by the question. "No."  
"Wait--"  
"Anyone else?" Dave interrupted, scanning over the small crowd. When no answer came, he turned to Bro, shrugged, and turned back. "Okay then, we're gonna give you guys a beep test to start to gauge who needs improvement on stamina and speed. Get in line," Dave ordered, and the group solemnly turned. Whatever they were expecting from their tutors, the reception they got was a bit colder and more detached than Jade thought any of them had anticipated. It was gonna be a long month.


	3. The Case of the Stolen Rose-Tinted Glasses.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A week into Jade's stay at HQ, she's already having a Jaegerful of troubles.

The bathroom was empty when Jade got out of the shower, on the morning of her eighth day there. This was good for her, she supposed -- she hadn't exactly had a killer first week. See, it hadn't taken the others long to start picking on each other, separating into smaller groups, and for conflict to arise, and Jade found herself feeling less and less welcome, no matter who she spoke to. A quiet room with nobody to worry about was a godsend.

Jade turned off the faucet and flung the curtain back, stepping out carefully into the dry section of the stall, where you were supposed to keep your things. She toweled her wet hair and hung the towel on a hook above her, which took her a moment because her vision was too blurry to actually see the hook. Then, she reached down for a shirt.

Her fingers met only cold plastic.

She turned and looked down, squinting. Although her vision was bad, she could see clearly enough that there were no clothes where he had left them. A sick, heavy feeling of panic settled in her gut as she realized quickly she'd been the victim of a prank. Carefully, she wrapped the towel around herself and pushed the stall door open. It swung easily, its hinges squeaking, and she stepped out into the silent shower room. Nobody was here, she decided. A quick inspection of all the stalls revealed her clothes weren't here either. 

Neither, then, was her lens case.

The walk back to the dorms was even less unpleasant. She couldn't really see anyone's eyes but she just knew she would be getting looks as she felt the numbers on every other door until she found her own, wearing only a towel. Not soon enough, she found the room, but only as the three other girls she bunked with poured out of it, all wearing navy and grey. They paused in conversation when they saw her, but quickly left. She was sure she heard murmurs and giggled, but she tried not to let it get to her. After all, she only had a few minutes to get to the rec room or she risked hanging for a while, and the last thing she needed was more humiliation hanging over her head like a raincloud. 

Frantically, she searched the room, but she couldn't find the pile hidden anywhere. Her clothes weren't an issue - they were given four sets of the exercise uniform. Her contacts were another problem entirely. She hadn't the first clue where to get another prescription if they were lost, and usually they took a week to get them in. She sat down on a bunk and sighed in despair. She had her glasses but they were highly impractical for training purposes. Her lenses were pretty heavy since they had to be fairly thick due to her poor eyesight, and they would only fall off. Besides, she was already a laughing stock. 

No, she would just have to make it through the session as if she had 20/20. She got up and pulled on her clothes, making sure they were on the right way, and felt her hair. It was kinda wet, but she was probably going to be late already. She pulled it up into a bun and ran for the rec room in a hurry. This day was NOT starting out well.

\---

"You can come down now," shouted her instructor after about ten minutes of dangling. Her callouses ached from hanging onto the metal bar, so it was needless to say she let out a groan of relief as she dropped onto the floor. Jade decided that maybe it wasn't so bad. For one thing, inactivity allowed her to more effectively mask her partial blindness. As she rubbed her hands though, something hit her head with a 'bonk'.

"Ouch! Hey!" Jade exclaimed as she fumbled with what she assumed to be a bo staff. She heard chortling from somewhere, but apparently it had been Strider no. 2 who'd thrown it. "Watch it!"  
"What the hell are you talking about? How did you not see that?" Dave retorted, then waved his hand in exasperation. "Whatever, just line up and get in stance, would you? You've wasted enough time already." The blurry figure stalked off to apparently speak with his brother, who still proved to be about as talkative as your average boulder. Jade got in line with the others and into stance, feeling even more run down than she already was.

The next twenty minutes consisted of the brothers walking back and forth, observing their students' form and accuracy while going through a set of regulation stances that all Pilot School freshmen learned in their first term. This was easy, more or less, because it was a mechanical, yet natural sequence to Jade by now, which meant she didn't need to rely on perfect vision to complete it, and the activity went by without incident. Bliss didn't last long though, because the next command was to get into pairs. Worse, Bronte quickly paired off with someone else, and before she knew it, Jade was paired with the goddamn instructor.

Uh oh. Not good.

"I feel sick," Jade immediately declared, leaning on her bo staff.  
"What? Bullshit. Do i really smell that bad?" Dave's immediate disbelief was disheartening, but it wasn't going to deter her.  
"No really!" She exclaimed, laying it on way too thick. "I have cramps! It's probably going to be messy and nobody wants that. I better go."  
Dave, although Jade couldn't see it, frowned. "Okay first of all you're obviously lying, second of all if you cant put aside some cramps for the sake of humanity, what are you even doing here?"  
Jade tried to look offended, but it obviously wasn't working. He was right, of course, but she was still angry. AND she would have to fight like she could see.

She failed.

Almost every one of Dave's hits got through her defenses, and even some of the ones she blocked went straight through. She only landed a hit on him twice, and after ten minutes of this he stopped, and over the clacking of the others' staves, he confronted her.  
"How is it that your form and execution is perfect but you can barely land a hit, even when i'm giving you obvious clues as to where i'm about to hit."  
Jade frowned, her heart rate skyrocketing. "I told you, i'm sick."  
"Okay." Dave sounded suspicious, and held up his watch. "Tell me the time."  
Jade scoffed, and it was a wonder she didn't know up in the process. She could tell people had stopped, and others were sniggering. If she could see who she was in about the right mood to punch them one, but she was in enough trouble as it was. "What? Read it yourself," she snapped, perhaps a little too defensively.  
"Just humor me."  
Jade cleared her throat, and tried to look at the watch like she could see.  
"The exact time, by the way. To the minute."  
She gulped. She couldn't make it out. She guessed it was around seven thirty, but how could she know for sure? "Whatever. It's 7:36."  
Dave looked at his watch, then sighed. "That was a very good guess but i know you can't see."

It's all over.

Jade immediately began spouting excuses, but she was interrupted by another student. God, this was only getting worse. "Are we really running so fucking short on recruits that we pass people who probably can't see the difference between a dick and their own finger into the Jaeger program?" This time, instead of giggles it was full on laughter. Jade felt her face grow hot with humiliation and anger. "They probably felt sorry for her. A scholarship's just a pity payment when you think about it." The comments continued to chime in from left and right until someone -- it may have been Dave -- ordered for silence in a very crude manner. When, finally, the others got back to their exercises, Dave took her aside.

"I usually wear my contacts, i swear!" She immediately threw her excuses at him. "I just, um, lost them."  
Dave waved a hand as if to sweep her words aside. "It's cool dude, calm down. I'm not gonna throw you out, you don't need to kiss my ass here."  
"Sorry."  
"Look, you must have glasses?"  
"Yes. Well i mean they're heavy and a little ridiculous but--"  
"Good," he interrupted. He took a notepad and pen from the sign-in desk near the door and scribbled on a leaf of paper, then ripped it out and handed it to her. "Take this to the infirmary and ask for Egbert. He owes me a favor, so he can get you a new pair of lenses if you give him your optometrist's info. Take your specs too; if anyone knows how to keep a pair of glasses on your head, it's that guy." She couldn't be sure, but she thought she saw him smirk as he tapped his shades. She never really questioned it, but now that he mentioned it, how DID they always stay on?

Jade took the paper, squinting at it, but she could hardly even discern that there were lines on it. "Okay?" She folded it and put it in her pocket. "Hey, thanks!"  
Dave turned to walk back to the group, waving to her with a lazy gesture as he walked away. "Don't mention it, just go."


	4. Not-quite-a-Dr. Egbert

When Jade got to the infirmary (which was more like a small hospital than a minor first aid room), she found 'Egbert' having a rather heated conversation with a young woman. Egbert himself was an ordinary enough dude, with short dark hair and a pair of square-framed glasses. The woman, however, was beautiful. She wore a lab coat, and a pair of dark purple ankle boots. Her figure was willowy, and her straight, bleached-white hair was cut at a neat angle, short a the back of the neck and longer at the front. Her eyes were a purpley gray, under sweeping eyelashes that framed slanted eyes. Whatever Egbert was talking passionately about, the woman had a look of graceful amusement about either it or him on her face. This was interrupted by her knock on his office door.

"Oh, hello! What can i do you for?" John asked, giving the young woman a small apologetic smile as she stood from her position of leaning on the wall to a more formal stance, holding a clipboard in her hands. Looking at them now, Jade guessed they were too young to be actual doctors, and were more likely students taking internships here.  
Jade nervously ran her fingers along the arm of her glasses. "Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Egbert, but my tutor sent me to see you about a lens prescription?"  
"Oh, please call me John. Who's your tutor?" John asked, raising an eyebrow.  
"Um, his name is Dave. I think his last name is Strider. I recently had my contacts... um... misplaced so he told me you'd help because you owe him one or something-- i don't know, he gave me this note. She handed the piece of paper to him. All it really said was 'catch up sometime' and Dave's signature, but she supposed John must know what it meant.

After inspecting the note, he beckoned Jade further into the labyrinth of curtains and rooms to a small office with twelve or so computers, and logged into one. The other girl, who introduced herself as Rose, followed along as well, and asked Jade about her training.  
"They usually throw you in without warning, but soon they'll start training you in simulation." Rose explained that simulation was a fake cockpit of a Jaeger, and there were two versions. The first was a single-pilot simulation, where the focus was to use strategy to fight the Jaeger. The other was double-pilot, which was mostly used to test drift compatibility with other students. Those who were compatible would drift. Those with too much conflict would not. This would be used to find out who the possible pairs were before the higher ups made their decision. Jade confided that she suspected she probably wouldn't be the pilot they were looking for, but she was content to at least have the experience under her belt. The conversation ended with John, who had located her optometrist's details and informed Jade he'd ordered her lenses and they'd be with her before the simulation training commenced.

Then, he got some straps for burn casts, and made a really cool three-strap system to hold her glasses on. The straps went over the back of her head, and she could fit a bun between them to hold them up. She thanked him profusely, then hurried off for breakfast.

"That was certainly... strange," Rose remarked to John after Jade left.  
John chuckle and took off his own coat, hanging it up. "Yeah. I'll have to talk to Dave and find out what he was on about." When Rose gave him a questioning look, he added "I don't owe Dave any favors," with a somewhat confused shrug.  
"Ah."

They stopped off at the Kaiju research lab so Rose could drop off her own coat before they both headed to the cafeteria as well, chatting away about Audrey Hepburn movies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kind of a short chapter, sorry about that! Updates will be infrequent over the next few days, but hey! I'm gonna go see Godzilla!
> 
> Thank you for reading, you're all darlings!


	5. Conversation and Shitty Food

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John and Dave catch up.

"Okay, but why do i have to get ROSE something?" Dave complained, his mouth half full of dreary grey mashed potatoes. He understood why he had to compensate John for helping Jade, since it was risky for an intern to break rules in such a strict environment... but Rose was an Alien Biologist, and by Daves estimate, had very little to do with the ordeal.  
"She was there!"  
To Dave, this was an insufficient excuse, but he decided it was quicker to let it slide. For the next few minutes, they ate in silence, with Dave keeping a vigilant eye on the time.

Dave was also the one to break the comfortable silence. "You know, she got through half the lesson without me even noticing."  
"Wow," John mused. "How'd she lose em' anyways?"  
"I'm not sure, but having to work with some of those shitheads gives me a vague idea."  
"Yeowch. How about the harness?" John asked, pulling a tight-mouthed grimace.  
"The glasses? They keep em' on her head fine, i guess. Besides, not being able to see properly isn't exactly a hinderance anymore, in this business at least. Speaking ofthe devil, the cadets are going to meet those guys today." Dave picked at the wierd, grey mince on his tray. "She seems to be pulling through with the harness, i guess. Didn't ask her."  
John whined, "why not? I love feedback. Besides, it can't hurt to make a friend once in a while."  
"Why do i need friends?" Dave tried his best to look offended, but in all honesty, he knew John was probably right. "Besides," he added, "they always leave anyway."  
John rolled his eyes and threw his hands up in a gesture of disbelief. "See! This is why none of yours ever make it. Try letting yourself have faith in someone for once. Trust me, belief is contageous."  
Dave huffed grumpily. "None of my cadets ever make it because one of their instructors is too up himself to even talk."  
"You can't blame him, Dave. Losing someone is on a whole different level when you experience the d--" John stopped when he recieved a look from Dave. "All i'm saying is, instead of giving up because half your team is defunct, try pulling his weight and see where it gets you."  
Dave nodded and began packing his empty tray. "Yeah, okay. I gotta go."  
"Aww, why?"  
"I told you," Dave insisted, although his vague mention of vision impairment hadn't really been clear. "We gotta take the Cadets to meet some rangers today, and i'm gonna get shit from bitchtits if i miss her speech."  
"Okay but... Dave, i mean it. Promise you'll try? Someone helped you get where you are. Someone else need that help too."  
Dave stood and regarded his friend. He always knew whar was best. John had a knack for sorting things out somehow -- he was a leader, at heart. But more than that, he had this annoying luck with his descisions, like everything seemed to work out for him, even if others were in utter chaos. Rose might be the psychoanalyst, but John was the counsellor. "Okay," Dave said. When John didn't look entirely convinced, he added "I'll see how it goes."

As he watched Dave walk away, John smiled ever so slightly. He might be young, but at least he wasn't young and stupid. John was happy if Dave, at least, didn't allow his abandonment issues to hinder others. He learned, and he forgave. And maybe something or someone to look forward to would help him move on, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for another short chapter! I had to update and write this entire chapter on mobile so apologies for the briefness and possible mistakes. I'll update sometime soon, and you get to meet more new characters in the next chapter!


	6. Once Upon a Blind Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The cadets meet an unusual duo of rangers and get their first look at a drivesuit and the simulator.

In all her time in the confines of large buildings, never had Jade been in a room that was so large. 

The Los Angeles Shatterdome - one of five (and soon, six and seven) under the Pan Pacific Defense Corps - behaved essentially as an aircraft hangar. Except instead of aircraft, it housed Jaegers. As soon as they entered, an instructor for another team in her group of cadets informed them that one week from now (July 11th, 2020) would be the 3rd anneversary of the Shatterdome's construction. This particular Shatterdome housed two presently, and each Jaeger was as different from the next as each Kaiju was different from the last. Tactically, the diversity in Jaegers was designed to match the diversity of Kaiju and their abilities. 

The first Jaeger, the Mammoth Apostle, was the first they were shown. Dave informed the group that it was a Mark 4, one of the most recent models of Jaeger. Jade, having been forced to study this during her training, recalled almost immediately that Mark 4's were the 2018 models, making this Jaeger 2 years old. It towered over the other Jaegers in the Shatterdome, and was bulky as well. 

The next Jaeger they were shown was called Scourge Trader. A Mark 3 Jaeger, and almost as old as the LA Shatterdome itself. This Jaeger was significantly more streamlined than the first though, and seemed to be built to be faster, despite being smaller. One of it's signature weapons was a self-adhesive net used to trip up and trap Kaiju and hinder them in combat. It's secondary weapon was a flamethrower, which was expensive to run and maintain, but highly effective as it cauterized wounds as it made them, preventing the spread of Kaiju blue. Its also possessed retractable blades on the elbows to stab opponents approaching from behind, giving it all round protection from Kaiju. This detailed description, mind you, all came from a dark woman with a very wide smile, accompanied by a short-haired lady who was apparently completely blind. The significance of this was that they were the Scourge Trader's rangers.

"No, not at all!" Shouted Vriska, the dark-skinned and very beautiful ranger, in response to a question about Terezi's sight. "That's the advantage of the neural connection. Technically, even a paraplegic or quadriplegic can be a pilot, so long as their brain is still able to process physical commands, as the main objective of two pilots is to share the neural load. So, aside from sight, which depends on me, TZ pulls her own weight."  
"Did you guys get along before you became Rangers?"  
"We had our differences, yeah. But we understood each other, which is FAR more important. If you understand a person's motivations, their way of thinking, then you will be the perfect co-pilot. You don't just need to physically match your co-pilot, you also need to mentally be on the same level. A mutual understanding and comfort is essential. I know it's hard since most of you don't know each other, so that's why you guys should start making bonds. Tell stories, especially ones you don't like telling. Graduates only come through once every two years and you will never get another chance. No pressure y'all, but you have no room to fuck up here." Terezi spoke for the first time. She had a raspier voice, like she shouted a lot or did sports. Or chain smoked, but her teeth looked too nice for that. "Oh," she added, covering her mouth in shame. "Am i allowed to swear?"  
"Nah, 's cool, Tee. Any more questions, or can the ladies get some rest?"

Once they left the Rangers to sleep after a day of simulation, the cadets actually got to see the sim' rooms. The first set of rooms were single-pilot sims. The cadets would spend the next monday in the sims, all day, getting a feel for fighting kaiju. After that, they would be tested against various classmates to see how well they drifted. Those who communicated better beforehand tended to be better at not 'chasing the rabbit' -- the more you knew, the less you tried to find out in the drift. Generally, strangers weren't too bad at drifting if they had their impressions down and had good concentration, but in multi-billion dollar machines they liked to be sure you and your copilot had a comfortable niche and could mesh well. 

Jade was, understandably, quite worried about this factor. Already, she felt this was the end of the line for her. Nobody spoke to her, nobody especially liked her, and Bronte had even snubbed her. She tried her hardest to join in conversations, but even after Terezi's example, it was probably too late for her to claw her way out of her 'four-eyes' rut she'd gotten herself into.

"Do you think we have a chance?" Dave stood near the back of the group while the supervisor for the simulations gave the group the tour, so Jade turned to him for the question.  
Dave, surprised by the question all of a sudden, smiled slightly to try and reassure her. "Do need me to be optimistic or honest?"  
"Well you've already implied optimistic isn't the truth, so let's go with honest."  
"We've been running the Jaeger Academies for four years. Each year, the successful graduates came out of one or two other groups. Never ours. Bro isn't much of a teacher, mind you, but he's the only person with the experience and the time. And only one pair of cadets from this Shatterdome ever made it into a Jaeger." Dave sighed and leaned against the wall. He kept his eyes on the group -- he didn't need to see her face drop.  
"Who?" She asked, her voice quiet. Whether it was from dejection or politeness, he wasn't sure.  
"You met them just before," he replied with a shrug. When he stole a glance at her though, her expression was far from defeat. It was cold calculation.  
"What happens if they find one strong candidate but no copilot for them?"  
"Probably outsource one for them -- if they're good enough. But for that to happen you would need to be twice as promising as any other cadet, just about."  
Jade grinned. "I'll do it."  
Dave was not convinced. "Oh, and how are you going to do that? It sounds wonderful but in reality, these kids work just as hard as you."

Only once in his life had Dave seen determination so strong in a person. Granted, that person was dead and gone, but it stirred a comforting familiarity nonetheless when her reply was:  
"I'll just work even harder, then."

For the rest of the tour, they didn't talk, but she seemed to hang back nearby. The silence was comfortable and companionable, and Dave felt a little hope for the cause. He hadn't told her, but people who succeed are most often people who stand out, and Dave thought that maybe, just maybe, Jade Harley might be the kind of person who stood out.


	7. Lockdown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jade spends her first Kaiju lockdown talking about Jaegers with her new friend.

Shatterdomes and their attached facilities were never quiet. Always, there was a hum of action, be it voices in the hallway, the faint squeal of power tools and cleaning equipment, shouts or laughs. Everyone worked in a cycle to ensure they were always ready for a breach.

Tonight, there was a breach.

The alarm wakes everyone. Fitted to every room and hallway, the Kaiju alarm was designed both as a wake up call and a warning. Should the situation turn sour, evacuation was the next priority, and everyone being awake made that process much easier. With luck though, it wouldn't come to that.

Jade slid out of bed and dropped to the floor, taking care to stay well out of the way of the other girls. Hearing the alarm for the first time was terrifying. More terrifying was the idea of accidentally landing on a potential co-pilot and severing what was left of her reputation completely. Jade hastily pulled on a pair of blue shorts and rushed out of the room, still fitting her glasses to her face. Since they weren't going to practice, she didn't need (or have time) to put the harness on, so she just wore them normally, adjusting them on her nose as she rushed out the door and into the corridor full of confused and chattering people.

Apparently, the idea was to head to the cafeteria or the Combat Room and await orders to return to posts/dorms or evacuate the premises. Faces with a choice, Jade decided the combat room was a more familiar place to go, and it was closer. Besides, she figured the other cadets might have the same idea. 

When she got there, people were already sitting on the platforms, on the ground, leaning against walls, and generally talking like it was a party. She wondered how they were all so calm when a Kaiju (apparently Category 2) had just emerged from a 29 meter dilation in the breach. Maybe they were used to it? Looking around, she didn't see too many other cadets, but they did look as concerned as she was. At least, then, she wasn't an outlier.

"You look like a cat who just stuck its face in a socket," came a comment from beside her, it's recognizable southern taint lightening her mood, just a little.  
Jade turned and rolled her eyes. Her tutor was much less stiff than she originally perceived, as it turns out. "That doesn't even make sense. And excuse me, i didn't have time to tie back my hair."  
"I meant you look scared, although now that you mention it that is quite the impressive mane. Tell me, how many unique species' do you house in that thing?" Dave, who appeared somehow more relaxed than usual, chuckled at his own lame jokes and folded his arms in that closed and distant pose he always seemed to uphold. "I'm kiddin'. But seriously though, don't worry. It's only a two -- we've had way worse."  
Jade smiled a little, picking her way through the crowd in the hopes of scoring a place to sit. "Who'd they send?"  
"Scourge. You're in good hands -- hey, up here." Nimbly, he dodged past some people and began climbing the monkey bars they usually hung off if they were late. By their hands, mind you. Not their necks.

Jade followed him up, but left the conversation idle too long in the process, so when they sat on top, overlooking the crowd, she didn't know if she should reply to his answer, or sit quietly, or make a new topic? Talking to people was hard. Don't get her wrong, she was a wonderfully easygoing person, but that didn't mean she didn't worry every second that she might take a wrong step. Friends and interactions were important to Jade, hence her struggle with her peers. Finally, though, she decided to comments on what was before them. "They're all so calm..."  
Dave squinted, looking at the crowd with a new, slightly rekindled interest. They were mostly talking, wrapping each other in blankets, sharing food or laughing. "They maintain the machines. Every joint, every bolt and every plate is polished, maintained and oiled because of the efforts of people in this room. I guess they're calm because they have faith in themselves."  
Jade sighed next to him, tilting her head at the people below them. "I think," she said, after a long pause, "that people only see the Jaegers and the Rangers when they look at all of us. They don't realize someone puts on the suit, cleans the Jaeger, feeds the Rangers and keep them healthy... we're like a hive." Jade's eyes glinted with newfound respect. It almost seemed silly that she had thought for so long that her only chance to work with Jaegers was to be in one -- how wrong she really was!  
"Hey, now you're gettin' it. Scourge might be those girls' body, but that body is someone elses' baby. They designed it down to the last detail, hundreds of people maintain it, and hundreds of people will dredge her outta the pacific when she'd bound for Oblivion. It's like some circle of life shit."  
"Like the Lion King?"  
"Yeah, sure." Dave chuckled slightly. "Gonna call your Jaeger Simba?"  
Jade laughed, properly this time. It was high pitched and cackley and loud. Hardly a quiet giggle, but it filled the room. "Probably not. Do the pilots name the Jaeger?"  
"They can request, but it has to be approved, and generally the Jaeger's already built so it gives em' hints as to what to call it." Dave cracked his knuckles with a yawn he didn't bother to cover his mouth for.  
"So.... is our Jaeger built?"  
Dave shrugged. "Yeah, but it won't be in the Shatterdome until it has pilots. If another Shatterdome appeals for another Jaeger and their need is seen as more urgent than ours, they'll get it and the cadets are usually laid off here. Keeping useless pilots around isn't sustainable." When Jade looked worried, Dave smiled slightly, although it didn't last. "We'll get it this year for sure. They already denied it once when we lost our first. They can't do it again..."

Suddenly, the conversation took a turn for the morbid. After prompting, Dave informed Jade that there had previously been two other Jaeger at the LA Shatterdome. The remains of both now rested in Oblivion Bay, the Jaeger Graveyard. The most recent loss was the Romeo Blue, a Mark 1 famous for taking down the Kaiju 'Hardship'. The second, Austin Rhythm, was originally based in Hong Kong and moved to LA due to demand. It had a kill count of three before it was taken down in 2017, just 6 months after the LA Shatterdome opened. Three of the total four pilots of those Jaegers were dead. 

For almost an hour, the two talked about Jaegers, their favorites, their least favorites, and designs they favored. On almost every count, the two agreed, but the discussion was nonetheless a good waste of time. Fights between Jaegers and Kaiju usually last anywhere between one and three hours, the longest being something like five or six -- Jade couldn't remember. Luckily, within an hour and a half, the fight was deemed almost certain victory in Scourge's favor, and the gatherings at each evacuation point were released to go back to their dorms. With about as much fanfare as they had met, Jade and Dave parted ways to go back to their dorms. From Jade's point of view, it had been a light conversation to pass the time, and worrying about how she should greet her roommates when she got back soon preoccupied her thoughts. As for Dave, he saw it as a much more significant conversation, and hoped it helped build her confidence in interactions. The misunderstandings and failures of both parts almost made the conversation not worthwhile at all, but at least they both walked away with a comfort in each other's presence, one that would become very significant, though neither realized it just yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not especially happy with that chapter, but it's necessary to sort of bridge the gap between the events of last chapter and the next one. Sorry about that! Next chapter, the cadets start their simulation tests, and John's reception of the wrong package leads him on a small misadventure, in which he helps a slightly unhinged lady friend dissect a Kaiju skin louse.


	8. Trantrums, Assholes, and Rock n' Roll

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the lateness of this chapter! I had a lot of assessment and social stuff to catch up on in the last month or two so i didn't have much time to write. This chapter is a bit of a time skip, after the group of trainees start their simulation training in pairs (in case that wasn't clear.) I hope it's not too confusing and i apologize for any continuity errors i might make. Thank you for sticking with me!

"Fuck this!" Roughly, unthinkingly, and in a bout of justified frustration, Jades third partner for the simulation threw down his helmet and glared at her as they left the sim chamber. Her mutters of apology fell on deaf ears, and the attendants tried to avoid her gaze as they helped her out of her boots.

As she stepped into the observation deck, she tried her best to ignore the snickers and chortles. Everyone so far had managed to drift more or less okay with their partners, but after three tries with rabbit chases on each count, volunteers for her partnership were growing scarce.

The first hadn't been her fault... sort of. She saw her grandpa, saw the carnage she had to discover on her own, and she was down. The next two times were more shameful instances of her following other peoples memories, and she'd copped a lot of flack for nosing around. She was just too interested in other peoples consciousness, and was becoming more and more aware of how much she was out of the loop with the others - there wasn't a single person out there that she could comfortably hold a conversation with, let alone _drift_ with.

Her chances of becoming a Ranger were almost visibly dissolving before her eyes.

"Again," Dave demanded, after receiving a look from his ever silent brother. Several people groaned, and even Jade protested. She'd had enough humiliation for one day. Apparently though, her tutors didn't feel the same way.  
"I can go solo. I do fine in the solo sim so maybe if i just--" she trailed off, his stern look creating a ball of dread in the pit of her stomach. Any friendship she might have assumed they had touched on during the lockdown would not help her now, apparently. It was stupid to assume it might -- if Jade were him, she wouldn't talk to herself unless it was a last resort, either. "Everyone catches the drift eventually, dude. Just put in a little effort."  
Jade sighed, and one look at her cohorts faces made her want to argue. "Don't assume i haven't been trying, asshole. Not my fault all these idiots have issues with jealousy." Jade herself was surprised at the venom in her own voice. She was less surprised at the venom in their scoffs. She wasn't surprised at all, that Dave was clearly disappointed in the childish quip.  
"And you're so much better, right?" In shame, Jade shrank back almost visibly. Feeling like she might either vomit, punch someone, or cry, she turned her back and used the cover that she was heading back into the sim. "Fine," she snapped, rubbing the bridge of her nose. As much as a brat as she had been, backing down was not an option. "We'll do it again."

\---

"Was it unfair?" "I dunno dude, maybe?." Dave stared across the table at John,  squinting as if it would help him read his friend's mind. He drew up a blank on that front -- must be those damn nerd glasses blocking his sick psychic waves.

Dave had spent the evening reviewing the data from the sims, and he couldn't help but feel guilty. He was well within his rights as a tutor to ask her to repeat a failed exercise, but apparently frustration and pressure weren't helping Jade's results. Both he and his Bro were the joke of the tutor group for having such an incompetent student.

Okay, incompetent is unfair. She did spectacularly well in simulations on her own, but her real problem was connecting with her peers. Part of the problem was clearly her own apprehension, but he doubted the other kids were trying very hard to give her a chance to be compatible with them, given her apparent lack of popularity among the group of cadets.

"Look, you did what you thought you had to. Doesn't make you mean or a bad teacher, but i think the problem you and your Bro seem to be having is that you're failing to adapt your methods when they start to fail. Everyone learns differently." Rose looked up from some thesis she was reading on the seat beside John, her right eyebrow quirking slightly as she spoke, as it often did. "You just have to figure out how to most effectively teach this young lady what she needs to know." She closed the paper and neatly placed it on the table. "Whatever you choose to do, just don't treat her like she's an idiot because she's a little behind the others in one aspect. She's not a school child, she's an intellectual equal."

Dave sighed, not really knowing how to reply. It was good advice, though, and he knew that Rose would allow him to dwell on her words. Tired however of speaking about work, Dave changed the subject. "So, how're the girls? I haven't seen them around much at all." Rose quirked her eyebrow again. It was more distracting than it ought to be.  
"I assume you mean the Scourges? They're doing a promo tour right now, bunch of interviews and stuff. Did you know they went on Ellen?" John giggled at that, and Rose shared a smile.  
Dave raised an eyebrow. "Wow, for real? When are they back?"  
"A day or two, i think," John chimed in, angling up a pea-and-spork catapult on his lunch tray. "Why?"  
"We're s'pose to go on a pub crawl sometime," Dave replied, then quickly added "Er, bar crawl, i mean. We watched the Cornetto Trilogy recently and decided to do it."  
John pouted, obviously upset he wasn't invited to the marathon, and flicked a pea at Dave with his makeshift catapult. "Well you're not exactly cops and there's no such things as zombies, so getting plastered is your only option."  
Rose leaned in on her elbow, resting her chin on a manicured hand. "Well considering i've spent the day performing autopsy on alien skin lice, i wouldn't rule out the possibility of zombies just yet."  
John looked at his watch as he elbowed Rose lightly, then seemed to be surprised at the time he saw on it. "Oh fuck! My lunch break ended five minutes ago. I gotta run, guys! Good luck with the jailbait, Dave. Tell her that her lenses are here and to come pick them up!" With a rough clap on the back for Dave, he galloped himself out of the mess hall. 

Dave rubbed his shoulder as the remaining pair watched him go. "That guy is ridiculous," Dave muttered to Rose, but she simply replied;  
"Yes, i agree. She'd have to be underage for it to be jailbait, really." 

\--- 

Later that night, Jade was surprised when her solo sim session was terminated halfway through. The operator told her she was free to use it after 5pm so she'd been using it since. Despite her success though, it didn't make her feel better; there was no such thing as a one-man Jaeger. Pulling the helmet off, she glanced up at the control room, then followed the gaze of the operator to Dave standing at the door. 

Jade tried not to look like she dreaded the sight, instead focusing on removing her equipment, since the usual staff were gone by now. "I was doing well."  
"You know you missed cafeteria close, yeah?" He leaned on the door, keeping the automated panels open. "How long have you been in here?"  
"I went for a full-length trial this time. I already did one, the second was going nicely," She replied simply, carefully removing her feet form the boots. "What time is it?"  
"Too late for food is how late," He quipped. "Luckily for you I have friends in powerful places and can probably snag you some chow. Need help with the spine panel?"  
Jade nodded, straightening so he could remove the back of the suit. "Powerful places?" She asked, turning her head a little.  
"Catering mafia."  
Despite her efforts, she couldn't hold back a giggle. She was definitely still cold-shouldering him though. With the last of the plating removed, she wrinkled her nose at the smell of sweat. "Ugh. I need a shower. Maybe two."  
"Nonsense, we can use you as Kaiju bait or something. Anyway, come on, before they all leave the kitchens." 

Turns out, they made it in time to score mushroom stew and rice pudding from the catering team as a 'favor'. They couldn't eat in the mess hall as it had been cleaned, though, so they opted to sneak into the shatterdome itself. The huge room was dark, illuminated only by security lights and the flicker of welding torches as people worked on maintaining and repairing damages to the Jaegers from the recent collision. Repairs could take weeks to fix, which is why two Jaegers were usually in circulation. 

Under the looming form of the Scourge Trader, Jade and Dave ate their dinner. 

"It's kinda sad, that Jaegers only come in human shapes," Jade commented, after several minutes of banter and eating. Dave raised an eyebrow, although it was hard to see in the dim light.  
"Why's that? I think they're cool."  
"Oh, no, i don't mean they're not cool but... imagine a less human Jaeger! Imagine the fighting possibilities it'd possess, how it might adapt well to combating certain types of Kaiju..."  
"Yeah i guess, but the human brain is only able to pilot a Jaeger because of the similarities between our bodies and theirs. Our brains would overload trying to figure out how to move a non-humanoid body." He said, mouth half full. She sat in silence at his comment, seemingly deflated. He had no idea why, but he felt like a fake Santa at that moment. Not the cool kind either, but the shitty kind that's really just that one weird, perpetually single uncle who got too drunk and tries to make out with someones mother in law and ruins Christmas for everyone. "Why, what kinda animal would you pilot? I mean, if you could."  
"A dog." Her reply was lightning quick, like she'd made up her mind before he'd asked the question. He didn't need to ask her why though, and she continued, "My best friend growing up was my dog. He was such a good boy, and he was so big my Grandpa used to put be on his back like he was a horse and he'd carefully ferry me around the island."  
"Island?"  
"Oh, my Grandpa was this inventor, he basically helped develop the technology used for drifts. He was pretty rich, i think his grandma owned a company that was huge or something.... but yeah we had an island with a big house. It was nice."  
Dave chewed thoughtfully. "So why'd you leave, if you were loaded?"  
Jade set down her spoon. Dave knew this because he heard it click on the tray. "Kaiju walked over it."  
"Oh..." Dave cleared his throat. "Sorry to hear that. So... you just left?"  
"Well, i was already at the academy when it happened, so i just finished my training i guess. Someday when this is all over i'll rebuild a house on my island and go back to ignoring everyone." She giggled a little, at least able to take things lightly in spite of the sadness of the situation.  
"Aw but living on your own'd be boring, right?" Dave leaned back against Scourge's foot.  
Jade smiled, looking up at a blinking light high on a Jaeger's head. "Nope! I'd have at least 20 dogs with me, of course. I'd be a craaazy dog lady."  
"With military training."  
"Yep." 

After that, the conversation lapsed into silence. They'd both obviously finished eating, but the room was both quiet and noisy, filled with the soothing hum of machinery. The silence was companionable though, and they both enjoyed the quiet. 

"You'll get the hang of drifting, you know. Almost everyone does." Dave broke the silence finally in a hushed tone. He was treading carefully, that much was clear, but her silence prompted him to continue. "It's harder for people with.... baggage. They try to chase their own rabbits or try to push the other person's mind away too much. If you don't trust your partner with every memory you've ever had, then the drift won't work. So i get why it's difficult for you."  
"Nobody else has trouble," she said quietly. Her face was unreadable in the darkness.  
"No, just most people don't have trouble. You are theoretically an excellent candidate. And like, don't tell anyone about this conversation or i could get my ass royally handed to me on a gold room service platter with a little 'you're fired' note in fancy font on the side, but your sim results are so good they're... almost an outlier from the other students' stats." He paused a moment. "You have an unreal amount of potential, kid. I don't know you all that well in reality, but i know that you probably worked hard to be here if all that scholarship bullshit they go on about is anything to go by. I'd hate to see it all vanquished Walder Frey style because you can't trust someone in your head. I know it seems hard, and it is, but not as hard as you think."  
"Mmm..." she hummed in the dark, and he felt her shift her position. "Sorry i was so shitty today. I feel really bad but, i promise i'll try harder to drift with them."  
"Kay, but i feel like i should tell you that if you can't do it... well, sometimes, if their individual results are high enough, and if the issue seems to lie in incompatibility with the cohort, sometimes they just take on one of the cadets until the find a suitable drift partner. So you're not completely fucked."  
Jade scoffed at this. "Oh yeah, and how many times has that happened?"  
"Once that i know of," he commented a little too offhandedly, but quickly added "But take it from me, if you keep at your practices you have a real chance to be considered for individual contract." 

With that, the blond stood up and dusted off his jeans. Jade stacked their trays and stood as well, and they left them in the sink of the kitchens on the way out. They chatted quietly as they walked back to the housing wing. 

As they came to her door, they stopped, speaking in hushed tones. "By the way Harley, John has your lenses. You can pick them up from him in the morning." He patted her shoulder. "Night, kid."  
Jade nodded and muttered her thanks, but stopped before opening the door to her shared room. "Thanks, by the way," she called over her shoulder. "For dinner and stuff."  
"Well, i was a bit chuffed they were outta' Lobster, but what can you do?" She giggled, and he smiled that wonky smile he has, perfected by its own imperfections. "Don't mention it though, take it as an apology for interrupting your high score."  
Jade rolled her eyes, cracking the door open slightly and waving a little. "Right. See you in the morning!" she whispered across the hall, the slipped into the room. 

One of the girls lay in bed with a book and a small reading light. When Jade caught her eye as she stepped inside, the girl peered past her at the figure disappearing down the hall, then raised an accusatory brow at Jade. She didn't really consider the implications of turning up at her lodging after curfew with a teacher, but she now realized how that looked. Jade smiled what she hoped was a pleasant expression, then climbed to her bunk and under the warm covers of her blankets. She hadn't even noticed, but she was covered in goosebumps.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again, just a quick note: I may have forgotten that the American legal age is 21 and not 18.... so lets just assume, for continuity reasons, that the states lowered the legal age in the future.


	9. The Deep, Dark Drift

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel you guys should know i'm making this whole thing up as i went along and i continue to do so. So i'm sorry that this story might feel a bit draggy or directionless but i promise, i do have plans! :) As always, thank you for reading, and here's Chapter 9.

"Bronte, i have a favor to ask of you," Jade began carefully, taping the girl on the shoulder. 

For the weeks they had been at the Shatterdome, Jade's relationship with her peer Bronte was unstable at best, but admittedly the strongest she had in the group. Although she preferred the company of the other girls much more than Jade's, she really was a nice person in her own right, more or less. All that jade had to do was guilt that pert of the girl as much as it took to convince her to try and drift with her.

"Sure, what is it?" Bronte's reply was simple enough, but she did lower her voice. Jade made an attempt not to be too hurt by this, remembering Bronte had a reputation to uphold.  
"I know i've been a brat the last few days, and i know the sim must seem like a waste of time with me, but... i'd like to give drifting a shot and i think you're honestly my best chance. At least we understand each other, i guess?" Jade twisted the hem of her shirt in her hand, blinking at the other girl. Today, her glasses were gone, replaced once more by new lenses, courtesy of John the miracle intern.

Bronte drummed her fingers on her arm, looking more reluctant than hostile, but after what seemed like an eternity, agreed to give it a shot. Jade had a chance at getting a drift down, and she wasn't about to shy away. She had people who believed in her now and she would have to just suck it up and open her mind to Bronte. Jade was confident she believed Bronte was nice enough, deep down, and neither of the girls were that complicated. They could do it, she was sure.

So, as soon as they arrived at the sims, Jade bee-lined to her instructors. Dave stood next to his brother, having a hushed conversation, and she felt suddenly put off by the other Strider's presence, but she had been spotted approaching and couldn't snitch now, so she sucked it up and excused herself before interrupting. 

"Dave, i have a partner to drift with!" She announced happily, grinning widely.  
Dave smirked and nodded. "See i told you, just had to ask. But i think you forgot two of your eyes this morning," he added, which earned him a light punch on the arm.  
"Like you can talk, slim shady. Anyway, could you do me a huge favor and throw us in first?" She asked, putting her palms together. When he looked doubtful, she strained her mouth and muttered 'please' through her teeth a few more times, but eventually he nodded.  
"Go get ready, then."  
The girl practically bounced! "Oh gosh, thank you! Thank you thank you thank you..."  
"Yeah yeah, just make yourself scarce already. And Jade?"  
She raised her eyebrows. "Yessir?"  
Dave rolled his eyes, which was evident only my the small circular movement of his head in the act. "She's a normal girl who's worried about her social image, but she's nice enough. Don't over-complicate her and you'll be fine. And try to keep your mind clear and let the thoughts just move through your head, don't cling to any."  
Jade saluted as she backed away. "You got it, captain. See you on the other side!"

\---

The drift was like having your entire body pulled away and spilling everything that you were down a cold, slippery drain where they mixed with someone else's. Birthday parties, arguments, and conversations of the most intimate and mundane topics flooded through he rmind, and half of them didn't belong to her. Events she recognized flitted by, but as soon as she felt like trying to hide them, she concentrated on the next of Bronte's memories. Anything she saw that could be used against Jade was nullified, because Jade saw everything in her head as well. 

Jade, all in all, was just glad she managed to finally do it. But it didn't last.

"Bronte's chasing!" The words just made it through Jade's consciousness as the torrent began to slow, but Bronte's eyes were elsewhere, staring at events that the rest of them couldn't see.  
"What do i do?" jade called, glancing nervously at Bronte. A bunch of instructions were shouted at her at once, but the general message was not to panic. So instead, she retreated into the drift and reached out for Bronte's mind, and was transported into a blurry memory...

Bronte stood in front of her in a street, and despite not feeling it, she knew it was cold. Police and ambulance vehicles were pulled up outside a house, and Bronte walked through them, hugging a blue towel gown around her. 

As they approached the house, it was clear it was a beautiful one. In the door, she could see a large staircase around the wall of a circular room. Bronte stepped inside, however, and as Jade admired the polished marble floor, she saw movement in it. For a moment, she was confused, until she realized it was a shadow. And when she looked up, she felt her stomach lurch.

Bronte -- no, a girl almost identical to her -- hung from a makeshift noose from a beautiful chandelier that hung just a few feet from the railing upstairs. Obviously the girl had looped bother ends, thrown one over the ornate, curling metal of the lighting fixture, put the other around her neck, and climbed over to hang herself. Jade was so fixated on this event that she hadn't noticed Bronte curled up on the floor sobbing. As she watched her, the power tot he drift driver was cut and the scene flickered out of existence around her.

Bronte was still on the floor, however, and Jade stepped forward to help her up, but the girl wouldn't budge. Bronte was wailing like a wounded animal, and something told her that she wouldn't be okay any time soon, but before she could say anything, people rushed over and gathered around her, attempting to pull off the suit, to get her away form the room, anything. Jade's suit was eventually seen to, but she found herself just standing there for a long time. After a while, people form the infirmary came and jade was made to accompany Bronte to the nurses, but there wasn't a lot she could do. 

Bronte sobbed in the chair next to Jade for a long time. They'd both been given blue blankets and hot chocolate, but Jade had already hurled twice and didn't need dairy just yet. 

She needed to slap herself.

Because her first thought, after her brain began to actively begin thinking again, was not for Bronte's wellbeing. It was disappointment that, when she'd finally been able to drift with someone, they chased the rabbit. And Jade felt awful for that, but she had no way for redeeming this. Was she so bent on her own succeeds that she didn't care what others were doing now? Wasn't that what they had been doing to her, that she thought was so unfair?

She refused to ever discard anyone because they were defective ever again. If Bronte chose to continue the program, and wanted to try to drift with Jade again, she would accept in a heartbeat, even if the top achiever in the cohort asked her as well. 

\---

"Which Scourge do you think is prettier?" Was the discussion in Jade's dorm room that evening. As she lay in her bunk, trying to get some extra sleep, the girls in her room chatted about magazines they'd read, which Jaegers they liked better, and such. All of which were interesting things, of course, but jade was tired. She didn't really want to be hearing live readings of people's wikipedia articles.

"Isn't that our tutor?" one of them asked, and without really realizing she was doing it, Jade sat forward on her elbow.  
"What?" She asked, looking down at the three. The girls looked up, but didn't complain about her inclusion in the discussion, because apparently, a picture of a blond guy and the familiar red-headed blind Scourge pilot sitting at a cafe together. Jade leaned down off the bunk as she was shown the photo, and recognized the straight line of his nose and the lop-sided grin he wore when he actually smiled. "That's definitely him."  
"Well," the girl with the phone said, and held the phone in front of her face to read. "This is what it says: "Throughout her Career as a Ranger there has been speculation toward Pyrope's possible romantic involvement with ex-Jaeger Pilots Dirk and Broderick Strider's younger sibling, Dave Strider. The two are often spotted in public together but Pyrope constantly attests to being single, and the youngest Strider has become more and more elusive since the incident involving his brothers and the failed Puppet's Gambit deployment." Wow, i didn't think he'd go for the blind one. Does he wear those dumb shades to try and relate with her?" The girls under Jade giggled while she herself remained silent, mulling over the information she'd just been given. This didn't go unnoticed, she she met the eye of the girl who had been up reading, and looked away a moment too soon.  
"Well if i were him, i'd totally go for it. I mean she's really famous and nice. And he seems to have a thing for visually impaired girls, doesn't he?" The girl looked up at Jade with a pointed stare, raising an eyebrow. Jade wasn't sure if the others knew, but she didn't care. She refused to be lowered into cheap games like this.

Jade just ignored the stare with a shrug, and flopped back down and stared at the ceiling for three hours before finally falling into an uneasy sleep.


	10. Domestics in the Dojo

"How you doin?" Dave asked one practice, several days after the incident with Bronte. As they all wrapped up the session, Jadere-tied her hair and tried not to look at him.  
"Could you at least say it like a pick-up like instead of a pity-driven stab at conversation?" She made sure her tone conveyed humor. The last thing she needed was to scare him off. "But," she added, "I'm doing ok. Just bummed out and feeling shitty about Bronte. You?"  
Dave shrugged. "Same as always. You ready for the sim this afternoon? I know that was hectic last time, but you weren't the one who stuffed up. I think you have a real shot at drifting this time."  
jade deflated, looking at her stubby toes. The last thing she wanted to think about was drifting... especially with classmates. Bronte had been her best shot, and that was blown. She dreaded to think about her next move. "No, actually... i'm gonna give it a miss. I'm not feeling up to it and... i don't want bronte to feel like i'm dropping her because she was a weak candidate. I mean, it was shitty when people did it to me -- what?" She interrupted herself to acknowledge that he was suddenly looking very weird. like he just stepped on a lego or something.  
"Harley, uh..." Dave scratched the back of his neck with stubby, nail-bitten fingers. "I didn't wanna have to be the bringer of bad news, like im totally not up for the whole grinch deal. Not my gig. But Bronte has withdrawn from the Yaeger program officially. Her parents signed the paperwork this morning."

Jade wasn't entirely sure why she cried. Bronte hadn't been a close friend. She had barely spoken with Jade... but there was something terrible about watching a person give up something they worked hard to achieve. Being a Ranger would set you and your family for generations if you played your cards right. That couldn't have been an opportunity that was easy to give up. But was it worth crying over?

Apparently, yes.

"Whoa. Whoa. Back to planet Earth please, Harley. Hey," he waved his hand in front of her face, pulling her out of a tearful drift into daydreams and defeatist thoughts. "I'm sorry about Bronte, but it's what was best for her. Given her emotional baggage, she probably wouldn't have made it in time to... uh." Dave trailed off as Jade turned around, seeming to just stop listening mid-sentence. She was furiously stuffing her things into her duffel. "Is everything--"  
"As a matter of fact, no. Do you possess an empathetic bone in your body? Is it just mondays, or is being an emotional black hole a daily event for you?"  
"What?" Dave blinked, taken aback by the harsh words. "No, it's just she's gone and there's no point crying over spilled milk, jeez. She wasn't cut out--"  
"Oh, so it's okay to discard her existence because she's not your problem anymore, right? What happens when i leave. huh? No more pep talks and all that crap when i'm not your problem anymore, either." She kept her back turned, thrusting her bo staff into the rack and slinging her bag over her shoulder. "Well i don't associate with phonies. I'm sure your life is pretty easy since you're set for life in this whole teaching gig. You know there's a word for when family in powerful places get you jobs you don't deserve -- it's called nepotism, Strider. So forgive me if i don't agree with your views on the people who worked to be here, since you clearly didn't."

And with that, Jade Harley left the room in an angry emotional storm. And Dave felt like a school child being sent to the naughty corner. Except the naughty corner was more like the insensitive asshole corner, which sucked because the IA corner resided right next to the corner for child molesters and people who talk at the theater (otherwise known as special hell.)

He needed to fix this.

\---

Jade turned off the faucet and sighed, using her hands to press the water out of her blanket of hair, when the lights in the bathrooms suddenly went out. She breathed in suddenly, a special kind of imploding panic gripping her chest. Was there an attack she hadn't been alerted about? Had some calamity cut the power? Was she about to be killed while wearing a towel? But it didn't last long, and flickered back on, followed by an apology announcement. Apparently, someone had leaned on the generator kill-switch.

Why would you leave something like that uncovered? This is stupid. Jade got dressed and exited promptly after inserting her lenses again. She still needed to get dinner, and had made sure she wouldn't be late for close at the cafeteria. Barefoot, she plodded down the empty halls until she reached her room, only to find the person she least wanted to see, leaning against it like he was trying to act natural. Without a word, Jade approached and pushed the door open, forcing Dave to stumble and catch himself as she threw her bag inside, her roommates looking up in dismay from whatever they were doing.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't visit my sleeping quarters, Sir," Jade remarked coldly as she put her things away and sorted laundry. "You're making my roommates uncomfortable."  
"I am not, everyone knows i'm a pleasure to be around, isn't that right ladies?"  
Jade turned around and gave him a look that was more pleading than angry. "Please just leave me alone."  
"I came to apologize."  
Jade pushed past him, forcing him out of the room and closing the door behind them both. "Well, save it. I've had enough of people in this institution! There's only so much shit i can take before i crack, and once i crack, i'm not in the mood to be grovelled to. If you'll excuse me, i have to make it to the cafeteria before it closes."  
"Oh? Been at the sims after all, have we?" He fell in to step beside her as she strode down the hall, bare feet treading on the ends of her too-long pajama pants.  
"Well you're a teacher, so you can just go view the logs and see for yourself. Goodnight."  
Dave sighed, jogging a little to keep up with her. For someone with short legs, the girl moved fast. "Wow, you're really good at the cold shoulder thing, but i'm really good at the sucking up thing, so i'm afraid i'm gonna win this one sooner or later."  
"Why don't you save us both some time and use all that sucking skill on someone who cares more. A male hooker, maybe? The statue of David? A rock, perhaps?"  
Dave chuckled. "My, the choices leave me paralyzed."

Jade made a point of attempting to close the cafeteria door on him as she walked in, ignoring the few stragglers in the room. She quickly piled some mince and mashed potatoes onto a tray and picked up a box of apple juice, then sat herself down at a table. Apparently, Dave wasn't far behind, either.

"What, you didn't eat either? What the hell were you doing?" She jabbed her fork accusingly at Dave as he slid onto the bench across from her, placing his tray down.  
"As a matter of fact, i was visiting an ex-pupil before she left the state."

Jade stopped, giving him a long stare. She tried to read his face, but drew up blanks. it was like trying to get an response from a brick wall. "That doesn't change anything. You're still a brat."  
Dave frowned, for real. He looked at her for a long time, then set down his fork. "You know what your problem is?" When she didn't respond, he simply continued. "Your problem is you have underdog syndrome. You think you're righteous because you fight for the little guy, but you never stop to think that the big guy can't solve all his problems just because he's good at lifting things." He reached over and took the juice box she had barely begun to drink, and took a long sip. "Don't look so taken back, lots of people have it. I get why you were upset with me, and i'm sorry for being insensitive. Truth is i guess i have underdog syndrome too. I try not to be biased, but in the end the teacher always has a favorite."

Jade sat back and tapped her fork on the side of her tray, contemplating without looking him in the eye. She didn't feel exactly bad about chewing him out before, but she felt a little better about being his favorite. And the fact he'd tried to fix it. 

"So, what, you think you can call me star pupil and i'll forgive you?" She finally looked up, staring him down with her own special brand of Jade Harley determination.  
"No, but you're bullshitting if you say it didn't help." That lopsided grin spread slowly across his face, and it elicited the smallest of smiles from her in response.  
"I'm sorry i called you undeserving of your job. You and your brother really do know what you're doing. It was unfair. Besides, using connections to get places isn't a bad thing." Jade began to eat her dinner, significantly more at ease now.  
Dave chuckled. "No, it isn't, but that's not really how we got this gig."  
Jade glanced up. "Oh? Then how?"

Suddenly Dave seemed to sober. It wasn't much of a change, but the difference between the ghost of a smile and the ghost of a grimace was discernible, if you were looking. "Dead rangers from this shatterdome. Know who they are?"  
Jade raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, the Gage twins and someone else, why?"  
"The other was my second oldest brother, Dirk. He co-piloted Puppet with Bro." Dave swallowed, keeping his eyes fixed on the mince that suddenly had as much appeal as maggots to him. "The Kaiju tore a hole right in their Jaeger's head, damaged all the bracing inside. Basically wasn't anythin' to stop Dirk tumbling right into the drink. By the time R'ezi and Vriska got there to finish the Kaiju and fish what was left of the Puppet out of the sand bar... well. He'd already drowned. Bro was still connected... y' know... while Dirk suffocated. Screamed his vocal chords to shreds. That's why he doesn't talk -- he can't manage more than a whisper anymore."

For a long while, they sat silently in their seats. The lights were shut off around them until only the emergency backlights lit the room, and all the staff had gone to bed. Neither seemed to want to speak first, but eventually, Jade spoke up. Her voice cracked a little before she got her words straight, her voice sounding foreign after the quiet.

"I'm sorry, for what i called you. You didn't deserve that." She leaned on her elbows, running her fingers through her hair. "Nobody does."  
"It's ok. I didn't tell you so you'd feel guilty," he mumbled, unfolding his arms to rest his wrists on the table and lean back.  
"Then why did you tell me?"  
"Because I wanted you to know." After a moment, he chortled. "Someone who isn't mute or busy with their own Kaiju-fighting career. I haven't even spoken to John about it, you know."  
Jade smiled to herself. "And why's that? I mean i get he's not entirely D&M material, but he's a good guy."  
"I guess... that's not the kind of thing i rely on John for. John's the kinda friend who i go to when i need to be happy and feel normal." He shrugged.  
"You sayin' im not happy and normal?" Jade quipped, mock offended. To her relief, he lightened up visibly.  
"I think you're too stressed to be happy or normal. Moral of the story: don't get stressed or people tell you their sob stories." 

He chuckled and sat back, seeming to examine her. She suddenly shied under the scrutiny. As nice as it was to have a friend, she wasn't sure about the parameters of their relationship in the workplace. Nobody seemed to care, but it still seemed sleazy and she felt too much like a teachers' pet... Well, not so much now that she's been dubbed a confidant to the troubles of Dave Strider, but still.

"Well, i'd suggest we go do something, but there's nothing to do around here and everyone's in bed..." She finally said, after a few long moments of silence. "So i guess we should follow suit?" She stacked their trays and put them in the tray bin as he rose form his seat and stretched, his back audibly cracking.  
"Well, i wouldn't say there's nothing to do," he commented, waiting for her inevitable look that would prompt him to go on. When he got it, he smirked and continued: "Well, since i'm such a wonderful tutor, i'm going to do you the honor of allowing you to practice a successful drift in the sim and actually get some results for the record."  
Jade sighed and pulled her shirt down, as it had bunched up toward her waist while she sat. "Look, i know you're really trying here but nobody in the class is awake right now, and even if they were..." she trailed off, giving him a desperate look, but he just smiled ever so slightly wider.  
"Who said anything about students?"

An apprehensive smile crept across her face. She was excited, because this could work; with all the family deaths covered on both sides, she doubted either of them would go getting bogged down in memories; Jade hadn't been there for her Grandpa's death, so it wasn't traumatic as much as sad. Dave hadn't been there either, and although it seemed more of a sore point for him, he'd had a chance to vent. So she had high hopes. Besides, once she had practiced drifting and fighting with a partner, it would be a breeze to rope someone eligible before their time ran out. She could get a partner soon, thanks to Dave's help. 

So, they headed off through the facility to spend (if all went well) hours in the sim. After that, everything would hopefully fall into place. And Jade couldn't be more elated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to slowly start adding illustrations into some of the chapters. Look out for them in the next few weeks, especially if you feel like a re-read! Thank you, as always, for your support.


	11. The Dignified Dismissal of Dave Strider

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I must apologize for the spacing in this chapter. I wrote this one in word since i didn't have wifi at the time, and when i transferred it over, Archive removed all my paragraphs except for the last, for some reason? I tried to add them back in but it just removed my spacing again, so i gave up battling with the dumb thing. So it's all in a clump. It won't be hard to figure out what's happening, but it's peeving me off so i'm apologizing for it here anyway. As always, thank you so much for reading. Writing is something i'm trying really hard to get back into, and your support is encouraging!

Sparring the morning after she had stayed up until 11:50pm in a Jaeger simulation was not exactly the most refreshing activity for the soul, but Jade took it in stride because despite having the most monstrous bags under her eyes, she couldn’t shake the feeling of utter positivity from her gut. Last night, thanks to her tutor (and now friend, she supposed,) she had completed her first simulation assignment. Not only that, but they had done it pretty quickly. She hadn’t taken note of what time they’d begun, or really checked the stats screen afterwards, but she hadn’t expected to have been finished before midnight.  
Things were looking up for her. Now that she finally had a very successful drift on her record, all that was left was to hopefully find a like-minded individual among her peers, convince them to give her a shot, and finally get herself in the selection pool.  
The only problem was, she was running out of time. The officials were expected to choose their pilots from the cohort at least a week ago, and if they suddenly decided to do it before she had a chance to prove herself... it would be a shame if all her anticipation from the last 12 hours was squashed because she left it too late to get her act together.  
Jade finished her routine just in time for the group to be dismissed, and found herself almost staggeringly glad the session was over. She couldn’t wait to shower and enjoy a few hours of free time before they were scheduled for the sim rooms. While everyone slowly straggled out of the dojo, Jade gave a little wave to Dave when he caught her eye across the room. After a few quick words to his brother, he sauntered across the room.  
“Someone’s in troubleeeee,” he cooed quietly as he approached, sucking in a breath through clenched teeth.  
Jade, suddenly stressed, stood up straight as a board. “Oh no, what have i done?” To her comfort though, he responded with a chuckle. Apparently, whatever it was, it wasn’t serious. “Relaximundo. It’s me that’s in the shitter.” He chuckled, then added “Yeah i was surprised too, i mean. Wow. Something not happening to you? Whuuuuut.”  
Zipping her bag closed, Jade rolled her eyes. “Yeah yeah, ok. So what have YOU done, then?”  
The boy shrugged. “Might have initiated a simulation without a supervisor on site and proceeded to drift with a non-employee. “  
“A ludicrous accusation!”  
“Pssht. Tell me about it. I am a model fuckin mentor, i’d never do anything so irresponsible.” He shrugged. “I’ve already received warning about it but it isn’t serious. Marshal wants to talk to us though so...”  
Jade gulped. If it wasn’t serious, why was the Marshal involved? “Us? Oh no, no no i can’t be kicked out now.” She ran her fingers through her bangs and held them in a fist, turning back and forth on the spot.  
“Chill, Harley. If you were being booted, the Marshal wouldn’t do it personally. The only things the Marshal usually deals with directly are serious violations of protocol and the Rangers themselves.” He cracked his knuckles and leaned against the wall, while Jade uneasily settled. “She’s kinda like the head honcho. She has grunts to deal with departments like ours or John’s. “  
“So.... if we’re not in trouble, why the hell do we have to go and see her?” Jade opened the door and held it for him before letting it swing closed behind her.  
“I dunno. The whole thing’s wierd.”

\---

Perfectly manicured, cobalt blue nails drummed on the mahogany desk in the Marshal’s office. Behind it, a stately woman of fourty or so sat, staring down the two young people on the small chairs opposite. It was important to enhance her authority by making them wait for no reason, so she reached into a drawer for a spirit level, and used it to make sure the wooden name block in front of her that read ‘Marshal A. M. Serket’ was perfectly straight and parallel to the edge of the desk. Once she was done, she neatly placed the level back in her drawer specifically assigned to obscure stationery, then folded her hands on the desk to look between the two of them.  
Both children (well, practically children,) were sitting straight as boards in their seats. She couldn’t tell what the boy was doing on the account that he was wearing shades too dark to see his eyes, but the girl was examining the artwork on the walls with a little too much forced interest.  
“So I hear you two hijacked the sim room unsupervised,” Aranea finally said calmly, raising an eyebrow. It wasn’t a question or an invitation for confirmation. “Not the first time i’ve heard of this happening, of course. But then again, it’s never tutors, who are supposed to encourage responsibility and respect for curfews, who encourage or participate in the offense.”  
The boy shifted in his seat. “My apologies, Ma’am. I was the one who encouraged her to do it, so i’m prepared to shoulder the responsibility.”  
“I don’t care who’s shouldering the blame, Mr. Strider. What i want to know is why and how you did it. And i would advise you to answer very carefully. The outcome of this conversation depends on your answer” Aranea leaned back in her seat and drummed her fingers on the desk.  
“I’m not sure I... uh. Well. Marshal, my student has been somewhat... socially stuggling and hadn’t been able to successfully drift yet. That’s why. I just wanted to help a pupil out.”  
Aranea narrowed her eyes slightly, staring him down. After several seconds, she sighed disappointedly. “And that’s all you had to say? You wanted to help out a student so urgently that you did it at midnight?”  
“Well, we were just there at the time. I mean like you know how it is. I didn’t think and—“ Dave was cut off when she answered her phone ringing. He glanced nervously at Jade, who looked rather like she was going to hurl all over the Marshal’s plush carpet.  
Once she hung up the phone, Aranea began writing on some paper, with no intention of looking up for quite some time. After several minutes passed, and the two were still there, she sighed. “You can leave now.” Satisfied by the quiet shuffles of them rising from their seats, she sat back to watch them go. However, the girl was just standing there looking at the floor. Leaning forward and knitting her fingers together, she peered at her. “Did you hear me, dear?”  
“Look, Marshal Serket. Honestly, it isn’t what you think. Really, it isn’t. To be honest, Dave and I had an argument earlier yesterday and he came to apologize about it. We had a bit of a talk, and after the cafeteria closed we were bored, so we just went to the sims for the hell of it, to see if we could drift. It was a much better idea than going for a walk to some McDonalds at 9pm, and i managed to drift successfully and complete a mission for the first time. So you can get us in trouble if you want, Ma’am, but i’d break the rules again in a heartbeat if it meant i gained half as much progress as i did last night.”  
The Marshal stared at Jade, who stared back; holding her ground was impressive. Aranea then looked at Dave. “Well it was a reckless exercise nonetheless. If something had gone wrong, you would have had to talk her out of the drift yourself, which you are hardly qualified to do. What if you’d gone off the rails? This girl is nowhere close to being qualified to handle that situation.” She sighed, and leaned back in her seat.  
“Yes, but with all due respect, Ma’am, that wasn’t the case. I spar with her on a weekly basis and she was made well aware of any significant memories that might cause a problem, as was I,” Dave said, resting his hands on the back of the chair he had been sitting in. “If I wasn’t confident we were drift compatible, I would never have taken her in there.”  
“I see...” The Marshal paused for a very long moment, then began to scribble on a piece of paper. “Mr. Strider, i’m removing you from the employ of this institution. You will no longer be an official worker here.” As she continued to write, she ignored the protests Jade began to give, instead holding up a manicured hand to silence her and signed the bottom of her note with a flourish, before looking up. “All restrictions and obligations of your former position are removed,” she said pointedly, looking at Dave. “Restrictions and obligations that, say, might keep you from consideration among the pool of candidates. I received word of a girl’s resignation from the program on my desk this morning, meaning there is a vacancy. As irresponsible as your actions were, and believe me there will be an appropriate punishment, your results from the session with Miss Harley are hardly something that was can ignore, given the efficiency and speed with which you completed the simulation, coupled with both your solo results.”  
Jade laughed, a sort of hysterical, nervous scoff. “What does that mean?”  
“It means,” Dave said, without looking at either of them, “That our sim results were so good that they’re firing me.”  
The Marshal smiled. “And placing you in candidacy for possible selection to be a Ranger.”  
“What about Bro? He needs someone close by to help him teach,” Dave demanded, rubbing the bridge of his nose.  
“We’ve already gained his consent for your transfer, and he’s elected his partner to assist him for the remainder of the term. All we need is your approval and we can pull a few strings and enrol you.” Gracefully, the Marshal stood and straightened her navy blue blazer. “I can give you a few moments to think about it, if you’d like?”  
“That’d be swell, thank you.”  
When the Marshal left the room and closed the door softly, Jade looked over at Dave. She didn’t say anything at first, waiting for him to respond. After a moment, though, she said softly, “You don’t have to do it, you know. Just because they fired you. You can always walk away if you’re not ready...”  
“It’s not that. I’ve always wanted to be a Ranger, really. I was just unlucky enough to be born too late to get a co-pilot out of my brothers. Bro refused to enter a Jager ever again, so i just assumed it was off-limits for me but i guess he kicked that to the curb.” Dave chuckled. “Man always was unpredictable, i’ll give him that.”  
Jade plonked down into her chair. “So what’s the problem?”  
“Well,” he began, clearing his throat to sit down. “I need to be sure you’re prepared for what happens if i accept.”  
Jade laughed. “Yeah, you join the cohort and might be chosen! What’s to prepare?”  
“It’s not that simple, Harley,” he pulled the seat around and sat on it backwards, folding his arms over the back. “A teacher becoming a student isn’t something that happens a lot. Once word gets out why it happened, and it probably already HAS gotten out... well, they wouldn’t have transferred me unless we did exceptionally well across the board in the drift last night. Not just me. We.”  
Jade furrowed her brow and tilted her head. “So....?”  
“So,” Dave huffed, “As a unit, we’ve shown significant success compared to our past results with other partners. If either of us are chosen, chances are our partner will be the other. People will know our results would have been good if i were transferred, and once they find out what happened, they’ll know our chances of being accepted into the Jaeger program as a together are pretty high compared to their own, unless you’re not the only prodigy in the class. That’s some wicked reason for hostility, ya know? They were weary of you when you only had good results in solo, so now what are they gonna think?”

Jade didn’t reply for a few moments, staring at the carpet. After what seemed like hours, she looked up and shrugged. “Say yes. Wouldn’t you rather put up with some mean glares for a week, than to wake up at 40 wishing you’d taken the opportunity when you had it?”  
“I know, but usually... well it gets worse than glares. And, if you didn’t wanna end up co-piloting with me, if it comes to that, now would be the time to clarify. And don’t just say yes to be nice, this is a heavy as fuck commitment.”  
Jade grinned wide. “Oh come on, it’s not like you have boy germs. Lighten up Dave, this is a good thing. And i’d be totally honoured to co-pilot with you, but you need to calm down because we’re not accepted yet. Plus, if we did as well as they think we did, then there’s no reason why we can’t work together in a real Jager.”  
Dave sighed, the air coming out shakily. “Okay,” he said, with a quick smile. “Time to sell my soul, i guess.”  
Jade giggled and went to the door to ask the Marshal back inside as she chimed back, “Say hi to Satan for me!”


	12. Bowling (For Soup?)

The next day, Jade sat with John, Rose, and Dave at lunch. It was an unusual transition, she supposed, but none of them acted like it was out of the ordinary and included her in conversation like she'd been sitting there all year. Especially Rose. Jade figured at one point that if she was in the X-Men, she'd have the power to pause time and think about her answer before replying to someone; it would take Jade five minutes to come up with some of the quick jabs Rose did in mere milliseconds.

John was a bit more foot-in-mouth, but not in the bad way. He was very opinionated, and liked the same kind of dumb, ironic humor that Dave sometimes let through when he was feeling extra casual with her. It was like Dave had samples Rose's wits and Johns silliness and mashed them together to make himself, she supposed. He would and could talk shit for hours, but damned if he couldn't do so poetically. Rose and John seemed to treat him as both their friend and an inside joke somehow, giving each other glances when he said things sometimes (Jade would attempt to observe a pattern in this later, of course.) Their dynamic was interesting, and she was relieved that she might get to be a part of it, somehow. Jade could only hope.

As she contemplated the trio, Jade felt someone plop down into the seat next to her as heavily as a sack of potatoes, and she found herself exchanging a glance with Vriska the ranger. Jade stared with wide eyes, catching herself about to apologize for being where she had planned to sit. Vriska gave her a quick 'who-the-hell-are-you' look up and down, then glanced past her to look at Dave, before shrugging and setting herself upon her own tray like a starving tiger. "Affer'noo," she said to all of them through a mouthful of mushy peas.

"So, now that you two have joined us," Rose said, alerting Jade tot he fact that Terezi had also joined them at the table, "I was going to propose a notion to you all."  
"Well i'd hate for you to keep us waiting," Dave said, resting his chin on his propped-up hand.   
Rose only gave him a look before continuing. "I thought we could all go to the bowling alley tonight, you know the one that hands out hawaiian shirts?"  
"The one that smells like air freshener from the 60's?"  
"Yes," she frowned at Vriska only slightly. "What do you think?"  
John grinned and cracked his knuckles over the table. "I think i'm totally ready to kick Daves ass," he chuckled. Dave gave him a look, and the sisters both agreed.  
"Jade?|" Rose raised an eyebrow at the girl. When she looked lost, she smiled and said "Don't worry, most of us actually suck."  
"It's not that," she said quickly. "I'm just not sure if i'm supposed to leave or..."  
Vriska clapped her on the back so hard that jade felt her vertibrae spring forward into her spleen and back again. "Isn't she cute? You can practically walk out, they don't check ID's for people leaving and when they check it on the way in, you've already left and if they call you out, they get in trouble for slacking. Easy."  
"I don't know..."  
Dave nudged her with his shoulder. "Oh come on, if you stay cooped up in here wearing grey all the time you'll go insane."

It did sound like fun, and she almost forgot that she even had casual clothes anymore. Most of them were in storage until the resolution of her training here, but she had a few things. Finally, she resigned and agreed to meet them at the mess hall later that evening.

It took her an embarrassing amount of time to get ready, mostly because she had to do it all in the communal shower room. Luckily the showers weren't popular at 3pm so she had it mostly to herself, and so by four-thirty she was examining her appearance one final time. Jade had carefully combed her hair into untangled submission and it now hung in mink black waves to her waist. She had on a simple, electric blue party dress that ended just above her knees and a cropped red leather jacket to match her red vans. After much applying, washing off, re-applying, repeat, she finally settled on some very subtle brown eyeliner and a little mascara. She worried she wouldn't be warm enough though, and finally decided to brave the storm and go get a scarf.

Her bunk room was too full when she got there, and she counted three extra girls and a boy. Jade couldn't find herself caring enough to say anything about guys not being allowed in there, so she just ducked in, got a white knitted scarf for herself, then left. They all gave her strange looks but she was too late to pay them any mind. With her wallet, ID and scarf handy, she scurried off to meet her friends. 

Friends... that was nice. A good word to be able to use. Friends.

\----------------------------------------

By 8pm they were well and truly done with bowling. Jade, John and Rose were all hopelessly and irrevocably losing early on in the game, and Terezi didn't play, so Dave and Vriska had spent the rest of the match battling for first place. In the end, Dave won himself the hawaiian shirt and hey were leaving the building chattering loudly. Jade was beaming like a motherfucker, Dave noticed, and he was glad she had fun. She probably deserved to, in any case. Chick was having a rollercoaster ride ever since she got here.

He even told her the blue she was wearing looked better on her than the dark blue they always wore in training. She was definitely a bright colours person, he decided. She seemed pretty thankful for the compliment, but luckily she moved on quickly. He didn't want anyone reading too much into that. Including himself. It didn't really help that he was shoved into the back of John's pickup while they drove around, right between Terezi and Jade. Terezi and him were still a little awkward, but not awkward enough that they couldn't hold a conversation and joke. He wasn't sure if he hated her, but he felt a little sleazy sitting between them. Like some sort of wound up twat who thinks he's his own pimp or something, like the kind of asshole who writes songs like the one playing on the radio. The Robin Thicke mood music was definitely not making him any more comfortable.

"Hey so, we've got a week. Til' exams, i mean. Not a lot of time." His sudden subject change seemed to catch Jade off guard, and she looked nervous. He tried to sound reassuring, though. "Relax, you've got an ex-tutor on your team. There's three stages," he began.  
"Physical, mental, confrontational," she replied, wanting to feel like she was smart too.  
"Right," he nodded. "You know the first two, they're just sims. The third is a written test. Basically problem solving."  
"And what's the catch?"  
"No catch," Dave chuckled, leaning back in the seat. "it's mostly just common sense. Emergency protocol stuff you learned in school, that kinda' shit."  
Jade nodded thoughtfully. "So your point?"  
Dave wasn't sure he had one. He made one up just in case. "Well, i just wanted to make sure you're not like me and plan on staying up studying last minute the night before the exams. Don't look at me like that, my concerns are real. You just don't understand me," he turned up the hysterics as she gave him a long, hard stare (her laugh tugging at the edges of her mouth obviously.)  
"It's not a phase!" John called from the driver's seat, glancing in the rear-view. You could tell he was laughing just from his eyes.

Surprisingly, the guards didn't even mention Jade's truancy on a student pass. They got waved through and soon Terezi and Vriska had left for their wing (they slept in a room directly connected to their jaeger's head for fast deployment during sleeping hours) and John and Rose walked with Dave and Jade to their wing. Quick goodnights and thankyous were exchanged, and they all went to their rooms. Jade waved to him when the others turned away, and he wasn't sure why. It was still nice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things will happen soon probably. I promise. Still making it up whoops!


	13. A Study in Sequins

If he had to describe his feelings on the last few days in one word, Dave would probably pick ‘fucked’. Some days he felt like whatever god squeezed humanity from his shining holy sphincter was smiling down upon him, and other days he honestly felt like he was a moron for going through with any of this.

It wasn’t at all that he was afraid of what people thought. Dave was that special breed of person who was only a breath shy of feeding off negative thoughts directed toward him. It wasn’t the other candidates that scared him, it wasn’t the marshal or his ex or his ex’s scary sister or his ex’s scarier ex and it certainly wasn’t Jade that terrified him. What did terrify him was his brother’s thoughts on all this.

Dave was perplexed as to why his Brother had given the go-ahead to his transfer at seemingly the flick of a hand, at least after what had happened. Years back (but not many) his two brothers had been piloting their Jager when they were overpowered by a kaiju and brought down off the coast. Their Jager’s head was broken open and Dirk fell from the cockpit into the water, where his suit was far too heavy for him to swim to air or safety. Bro was connected to Dirk via the drift while he agonizingly drowned in the Pacific, a second Jager arriving just in time to rescue the oldest Strider, but just too late to save Dirk. 

Dave couldn’t remember a whole lot from the night, but what he did remember was that for the six hours between when he was air lifted from his Jager’s corpse and when he finally passed out in the infirmary bed from exhaustion, he just wouldn’t stop screaming. Dave had cried and screamed and almost hit at him for him to stop, broken the nose of an intern who’d tried to pry him from the room. After the first four hours Bro’s voice had broken, become just a wheeze of anguish and fear. This didn’t make it any better. Ever since, out of trauma, physical incapability, or both, Bro never spoke above a breath. 

So, after that, Dave couldn’t fathom how his brother could so (apparently) easily wave him through to be in the very situation that had destroyed him and their brother. It was hard to tell what the guy was thinking before the accident, now he was sending his only living relative into the same circumstances that had killed the last one? Dave himself was afraid as well; who wouldn’t be? An overwhelming majority of rangers die, hang the popularity and fame, but if he was being honest, he wasn’t sure what was scarier: dying in a jager, or surviving to feel your drift partner die.

Dave stood, his chair scraping on the concrete floor of the mess hall as he carried his tray to the trash. There was no point dwelling on it, as he was only plunging himself deeper into a rut and overthinking things. He should worry about passing, he told himself, before he worried about dying. Shoving his hands in his pockets he trudged out the door to head to the sim rooms, only to feel his phone buzz in his pocket. After checking the caller ID, Dave raised an eyebrow. What could John want that was so urgent?

\---

Later on, Jade stood next to Dave above the viewing deck of the sim chamber. Her -- uh -- their peers still seemed to treat him like a superior, and she understood why. He still relayed his brother's speech to them, which made it somewhat difficult to get used to his new status. But now that she felt a newfound permission to stand with him while they waited, she noticed some interesting things about Dave's brother. First, that he was a somewhat impressive ventriloquist, and second that he could in fact speak, but only as a whisper, like his vocal chords were incapable of creating vibrations for actual speech. She wanted to think he had always been like that, but she wasn't fooling herself. She had been told about the six-hour scream.  
An air of finality hung over the cohort, which was another cause for her unease. The exams were mere days away, and Jade was receiving meaner and meaner glares in her dorm room every night. She took it with her head held high, and tried not to be too arrogant, but it was still comforting to know that the reason they were upset was because she had a good chance. A good chance was better than no chance, by far.

After an uneventful session in the sim rooms in which Dave and her hadn’t had time to have a turn, Jade was surprised to meet Rose in the showers, apparently waiting for her.  
"Rose, what's u--" Jade's sentence was cut off by Rose hushing her quickly and pulling her by her arm from the mirrors she was headed for.  
"No time! Come on, I need your help." Rose began to drag her out of the showers, despite Jade's protests and still dripping hair. "You'll see when we get there!" She insisted, tugging her down the hall with her toiletries, towel and bag in tow. They finally arrived at a dorm room that Jade quickly presumed to be Rose's, and she was hustled inside.

"Okay, what's going on?" Jade laughed, watching Rose bustle about the tidy room.  
"You," she began as she laid out clothes on one of the bottom bunks, arranging them as they might be on a person. "are here to help me choose an outfit!"  
Jade sat on the opposite bunk, carefully examining the clothes. "Okay, but I think I ought to tell you that i don't really know a lot about fashion!"  
Rose only waved her hand dismissively, stepping out of the way so Jade could see. "Its okay, my expert roomie is out visiting her family so you're all i've got right now."  
"Thank you," Jade said with a smirk, "For that vote of confidence. But ok, i'll see what i can do. What kind of occasion is it?"  
Rose shifted from foot-to-foot in an unusual display of discomfort. "It's a date," she said cautiously. Jade tried not to grin too wide or heckle her, but she couldn't help but ask who the date was with, to which Rose raised her chin and replied "Egbert, actually. His invitation was rather brave, so i accepted."  
"Ah," replied the dark-haired girl, examining the outfits with new purpose. "Well, i think it's lovely, Rose!"  
"Well," she laughed, leaning against the bed post. "Not quite so lovely as amusing. He managed to make a joke out of it so it wasn't so confronting a proposal."

While Rose told her all about the prank rose that sprayed water, Jade decided on the black dress with the purple striped skirt and gold belt. The orange cocktail dress was "too swanky club' for a humble Italian restaurant. Rose thanked her and claimed that she agreed, and after she changed Jade gave her a final thumbs up before walking her most of the way to where Rose was meeting John, near the admission gate to the shatterdome.

Just as she parted ways with Rose, she spotted Dave walking towards them. Turns out he'd escorted John in a similar fashion.  
"Just givin' the man some tips," Dave explained, after they said goodbye to Rose. "he needed it. Was gonna wear a green tux to a two star restaurant."  
"Aww, how cute!"  
Dave scoffed. "Rose would have died from embarrassment if he did."  
"Ah yes, thank god the noble and just Sir Dave of the fashion police was there to save the day. What does he have a green tux for, anyway?"  
Dave suddenly caught her arm and steered her away from a janitor's trolley she obviously didn't see rolling across her path. It took him a moment too long to remember to pull his hand away afterwards, but if she noticed, she didn't comment. "High school graduation, apparently," he quickly replied after clearing his throat.  
"Yikes," she muttered. "How long ago was that?"  
Dave shrugged. "Last year? He did one of those jump start college things for super nerds and managed to land his internship. Rose's is part of her bachelor so she's technically at college right now."  
"And you?"  
Dave glanced at her sidelong, shoving his hands in his pockets. "I was a year ahead since fifth grade, went to Jager school like you in Texas. Didn't make the cut but after his accident, Bro landed me a job here. Been workin’ for two years."  
"Texas. That explains the accent," she giggled, knitting her fingers together in front of her as she traipsed along. "So that makes you what, nineteen?"  
"Somewhere around there," he smirked. "My grad tux wasn't half as impressive, though."  
"What a coincidence, neither was mine!" Jade chortled, skipping a little in her step in a energetic way she liked to walk.  
"I'm pretty sure you could rock a tux," Dave nodded thoughtfully. "A fabulous blue one."  
"Pssht. You'd look great in an Austin Powers burgundy one."  
"Well sorry to disappoint, but i had a boring black one. Rented, as well. John bought his."  
"Trust me, renting is great. Most girls buy their dresses and they just end up gathering dust in your closet until you're forty and finally decide its ugly and outdated and give it to good will," Jade complained longingly. "I always feel like i need to apologize to mine every time i see it."  
Dave decided not to ask what it looked like. It was probably better if he didn't know. "I'm sure the dress isn't sentient, and if it was it wouldn't want your pity," he chuckled, then gestured to the right path of an intersection they reached. 

"So I was thinkin’, if we catch the sims now we'll get out before kitchens close?"  
Jade glanced up at him and made a non-committal gesture. "Practise never hurt anyone!"  
"Not necessarily true but I get your sentiment. Let's go."

The interesting thing about drifting is that you see different memories every time you do it; no two drifts are exactly the same. Depending on recent memory triggers in your partner's day, the memories your brain picks up visually vary. So despite having drifted at least five times in the last week in their spare time, he picked up new things every time, and he usually didn't dwell on them out of respect. He couldn't help it though, to linger a little on a memory as it flew by. She was examining herself in a full length mirror in a hotel room or something, and could have sworn she was wearing a galaxy with green trim.


	14. Freckles Are Like Tiny Galaxies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, but i promise it's worth it. I think this chapter might be the longest i've written so far for this work, and i'm quite proud of my direction now -- i think i know how it'll all play out. Not long to go now, but please let me know if you like what i've done! Praise fuels my ego which fuels my work. Enjoy!

As she peered down her arms at the bumpy texture of goosebumps, Jade quietly wished she had worn something with sleeves. There was no way she could have known that they were going to crank the air con like the Antarctic. She would simply have to suck it up though, because every second wasted worrying about the temperature meant less time she had to finish her exam.

The Jager Exams.

Even now, she was finding it hard to appreciate the magnitude of the situation. It felt like she wasn’t really there – vivid enough to not be a dream, but vague enough that she wasn’t feeling especially attached to her situation. Kind of like viewing a memory in the drift, she supposed.  
As Jade knuckled down on the next problem on her paper, Dave was speeding through it like a machine. He did have a slight advantage – he’d been teaching most of this stuff for a few years, as opposed to learning it for a few weeks. He supposed it was fairer because the test’s content changed every year so nobody could cheat and just ask someone who’d already taken it.  
With 50 questions over 4 hour of exam time, Dave figured out that he had just under five minutes to do each question, and should have completed around 12 questions per hour. Now, with one hour to go, he was up to question forty-two. Making good time. He now had seven and a half minutes per question. Sometimes he thought he might be being too pedantic about his time management, but in a way, doing the maths calmed his nerves. 

He wondered briefly how Jade was doing. He didn’t want to look at her too obviously in case someone thought he was cheating, but she seemed relaxed from what he could see out of the corner of his eye. She had that ridiculous mane of hers tied in a bun on top of her head, and he could see it bobbing around every time she moved her head. Today she also wore her glasses, their brace straps hugging her head while her hair ballooned out from under them. She wrote with smooth movements, and he wondered for a moment what her handwriting looked like.  


All of this had been such a blur, you see, that he was realizing now he didn’t know much about her at all. He had felt her graze her knee when she was seven, but what was her favourite food? The drift didn’t tell you everything in those first few moments as you connect, and she’d never thought about her favourite food in a sim – which was understandable. Yet he was ready to fight aliens the size of skyscrapers with her, something that had torn what was left of his family into disrepair. He wasn’t entirely sure if it was something to do with how she was, or if it could have happened with anyone. He supposed it was her. Something about the way she acted around others made her the kind of person that was easy to confide in, or maybe it was because he’d initially pitied her. Since then, he’d come to regret that pity, for she wasn’t weak by a long shot, just thrown into circumstances that she didn’t adjust to well. In the end, Dave couldn’t say he was anything less and impressed with how she had handled the bulk of her social difficulties and – god, there he goes again. He had to stop thinking like a teacher and analysing his pupils.  


Suddenly, the bun of raven hair tipped back as she lifted her head and turned her gaze to catch him staring right at her with a frown of concentration on his face. She raised one eyebrow, though her mouth curled in a way that betrayed her laughter. Dave felt his face flush with heat and he forced out as casual a smirk as he could before looking back down at his paper in a hurry. His embarrassment meant he took a few moments to get back on track with the exam. He’d wasted at least four minutes staring at space, meaning he had less time to finish the questions. Shaking his head at his own failure of time management, he got back to his exam, trying not to think too hard about Jade all the while.

\-------

“Time’s up!” Announced their instructor form the front of the room, tapping his pen on the plastic face of the clock. Almost like a breath of relief that was being held in for the past four hours, the sounds of shuffling paper softly carried itself across the small crowd of students as they packed up their things.  


Jade leaned back over the chair, stretching her back and arms over the backboard of her seat and relishing the sudden ability to be able to move around. Four hours was a long and strenuous amount of time to be sitting in one place, so the whole room seemed to be united in gratefulness of its completion. Before long, she glanced over to see how Dave was done. They weren’t allowed to talk until they had left the room, but she was still allowed to look around. He looked up almost on cue, smiling at her with all the confidence she needed to see. He’d finished all the questions. She sat up straight and grinned, pointing to her paper and then showing him two thumbs up.  


Dave was shaking his head at her enthusiasm when the supervisor stepped between their desks, peering down his nose disapprovingly and holding his hand out for her exam paper. Bashfully, Jade passed it up to him and he swivelled to collect Dave’s before moving on.  


It was a few more minutes until they were dismissed. Like Pandora ’s Box, the students spilling out of the room erupted into a chaos of noise as they entered the corridor outside. Armed with four hours’ worth of accumulated, unspent energy, Jade found Dave in the crowd within seconds.  


“You hungry?” She asked, bouncing on the balls of her feet and grinning like a madwoman. Dave raised an eyebrow, trying not to chuckle.  
“Not especially,” he replied while he folded his arms, trying his best to appear relaxed. “Why, are you? We can go gr—“  
Jade cut him off by snatching his sleeve and pulling him through the crowd. “Wonderful! Let’s spar.”

With little else to do but be dragged along in Jade Harley’s motivational hurricane, he let her drag him through the others until they cleared the throng of bodies and headed down the less congested hall to their dorms. They set a comfortable pace once Jade released his poor sleeve.

“Gosh, wasn’t that just so long!? I bet my face would have slid off if the air conditioning hadn’t frozen it there!” Although she was complaining, Dave noticed, she didn’t look unhappy. “If they were gonna make it that cold they could have at LEAST given us some snow!”  
“Ew,” Dave retorted. “Snow’s so gross, no thanks.” When she looked offended, he raised his palms up in defence. “Hey, it’s slushy and wet and eugh. I’d rather throw myself into lava.”  
“But you can play in snow!!! Lava isn’t fun at all.”  
“Lava is SO fun. Haven’t you seen Lord of the Rings?”  
Jade giggled so hard she nearly snorted, and said “Dave, I think the last thing that lava was supposed to be was FUN.” She pressed the button for the elevator, drumming her fingers on her folded arms.

Her companion wasn’t convinced, but he let it slide, instead veering the conversation back on track with “Yeah, it was kinda cold though.”  
“Mmm,” Jade agreed, letting him into the elevator first before following him in. The doors slid closed and they were lowered to their floor super fast. The Shatterdome had really fast transport systems. Elevators and the like were always super quick, usually to accommodate for the fact that the Shatterdome operated during dire circumstances.

“So, how do you think you did?” Dave asked her as the doors slid open, releasing them into the first hallway of the accommodation wing. “On the test, I mean.”  
“Well enough. I answered all of the questions, miraculously!” She skipped a little in her step.  
Dave thought back, deciding none of the questions were really that long. “Well, they were pretty straightforward, I guess.”  
“Oh yeah?” Jade raised a brow at his confidence. “You answered all of them?”  
“I’m wounded, Harley,” he replied. “Do you even need to ask?” His tongue-in-cheek earned him a playfully light elbow to the ribs, and while pretending to be slammed into the wall beside him from the ‘impact’ would be hilarious, he figured he would save his energy.  
As they reached her room, he decided he’d grace her with a real answer. “Yeah, I answered all of them. I’m like the fucking patron saint of time management.” Halfway through his sentence, she rolled her eyes and ducked into her room. “Hey, rude!”  
“I’m still listening!” Her shout came faintly from the other side of the door. “But, do you think we’ll pass?”  
Dave sighed and leaned against her door, folding his arms and propping one leg against the metal. “I guess we’ll know when they give the final callbacks.” Dave rubbed the bridge of his nose under his shades. If both of them passed and their previous sim results were enough (he was guessing they were) then he and Jade would be one of the pairs that they would arrange the top eight cadets into. From there, it would be a judgement of their performance, following orders and responding to each other’s mental wavelength.  
“So um, what happens if we don’t get paired for that?”  
Dave shrugged, then realized that was dumb, considering she couldn’t see him do it. “I guess shit happens. Don’t stress about it Harley, they wouldn’t put you with anyone unless they were sure you had the capability to be excellent colleagues. It will work out. Trust the system or whatever.” He attempted to sound as calm as possible.

A few moments of silence preceded a loud thump. “Ouch!” Jade’s voice cried out, followed by a string of profanities.  
“What are you DOING in there?” Dave groaned, rolling his eyes.  
He heard her huff and shuffle around a bit. “Nothing! Hang on a sec.” 

Dave felt it best not to push it so he just let her be. Within seconds, she was yanking the door open, sending him toppling backwards into the room behind him.  
“Oh my god!” She quickly pulled him into a sitting position as he rubbed the back of his head. “What were you leaning on the door for, numbskull!?” Despite his injury, she couldn’t help but start to giggle.  
“Maybe,” Dave commented, sitting up straight before attempting to pull himself to his feet, “I didn’t think that through as well as I could have.”  
“Yeah, no shit Einstein.” Jade pulled him up, now wearing her usual navy and gray exercise gear.  
Dave sighed and stepped out of her room. “It smells like flower buttholes and stale laundry in there.” His comment earned him a look from Jade, before she bashfully pulled the door closed.  
“And your room smells like an summer breeze, does it?” She jostled.  
“You’re not coming anywhere near that pigsty.”

Despite Jade’s protests, he sent her to put in her contacts and meet him at the dojo in ten. When she finally left, he savoured the moment to breathe and get his head on straight. Which, by the way, really fucking hurt. When he got back to his room, he threw on his gym clothes and took a paracetamol to stop the bump giving him a headache. Although he’d denied Jade access to his living quarters, he still tried to clean up a bit, regardless that he felt stupid about it. 

Just as well too, because within minutes that mischievous girl was back, drumming on his door again. “You better not be taking forever in there!” She warned, drumming her nails on the metal.  
Dave grunted and opened the door, securing the straps of his combat shades as he did so. “You are such a hypocrite,” he sighed.

\------

Jade’s hand was inches from the bo staff when Dave called to her. “Does a Kaiju have a bo staff?” Figuring he was right, he dropped her intention and instead started her stretches on the floor mat.  
“You keep forgetting you’re not the boss around here anymore, sir!” Jade chimed as she put one foot behind the opposite knee and used it to stretch her torso to the side.  
“I’m always the boss, it’s just sometimes people don’t realize it yet,” Dave chuckled, settling onto the ground beside her.  
“You’re so modest! No wonder you’re such a people magnet,” she giggled, turning to stretch the other way.  
Dave leaned forward, reaching for his toes. “Well, it worked on you, didn’t it?” He smirked to himself for a few seconds, and when he looked up to see what caught her tongue, the red on her cheeks wasn’t what caught his eye. He reached out and caught her arm, his brow furrowing in concern. “Harley, you’re bleeding.”

Jade looked up at him then down at her elbow, now noticing a half-dried line of blood stretching from her elbow to her wrist. “Oh shit,” she muttered, peering at her skin. “Must of happened when I fell over?”  
Dave rolled his eyes and stood, pulling her to her feet. “What did you hit it on?” he asked, gently tugging her across the floor towards the staff room on the other side of the hall.  
Jade giggled, following him compliantly. “I think the corner of the drawers. Stop fussing, I’m fine!”  
“It bled a metric fuckton, I mean I don’t know why that would be a cause for concern,” Dave muttered sarcastically.  
He opened the staffroom door and wove her through the desks. The room was dark, lit only by the lights of the main room shining through its interior window. The desks mostly belonged to the tutors like his brother, but they were all at dinner by now, their shift well and truly finished for the day. In no time, they reached a small bathroom in the back. He propped the door open with a chair and dragged her in. “Wash the blood off,” he instructed her, then crouched to dig through a cabinet until he found the first aid kit stored there. While she rinsed her arm and the pink mixture of blood and water swirled down the drain, he got disinfectant on a swab for her. 

“Okay, Doctor Strider!” Jade turned, her arm clean, but the wound now wet from the removal of its partial clot. “Are we gonna have to operate?”  
Dave rolled his eyes with a smirk. “I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to amputate the elbow. Don’t worry though, you can keep the rest of your arm.” He watched her chortle with amusement, and then hold up her elbow. “What,” Dave grinned, holding up his hands. “Can’t you do it yourself???”  
“Well I thought it’d better leave it to the professional. Now get swabbing, asshole!” Jade practically cackled as he pulled a face, hissing when the disinfectant stung her wound. Dave muttered apologies as he wiped the graze, and she did her best to keep still. After he’d disinfected it, he got a large patch plaster and smoothed it carefully over her elbow.  
“There,” he declared, admiring his work. “One amputation. Thanks for coming.” As his partner chuckled and examined her plaster, he packed up the first aid kit and slid it back into the cabinet.

“It was fine, but thanks. Anyway, now that we’re done procrastinating, are you ready to get your ass handed to you?”  
“Are you sure? I mean your plaster might come off and then I’d have to fix your boo boo all over again.” He paused at the door. He was only partially joking, if he was being honest. He didn’t want to hurt her elbow, as sure as he was that she could handle herself. In fact, normally he wouldn’t care, but for some reason he was currently feeling a strong reluctance to beat her up today, perhaps even a bashfulness, loathe to admit it as he might be. Of course, admitting this would only give her cause to tease him.  
“I’m sure,” she confirmed, and proceeded to proudly lead the way back out to the floor.

About eight metres away from the wall, she turned with a high kick to his head. Dave caught it easily with a short burst of laughter. “Totally knew you were gonna do that,” he claimed, tugging her foot to send her off balance. She caught herself in time to dodge a swing and duck away to a safe distance.

For a few moments, they circled, waiting for the other to attack first. It didn’t take long for Jade’s impatience to win her over and she threw him a standard fakeout punch, which he easily blocked and countered with a stinging whack to her ribs. Jade swung at his head, and when he ducked, she sent a fist straight to his gut. This time, Dave backed up, catching his breath while Jade took the offensive. For several swings and kicks he dodged until he threw his own roundhouse. This time Jade was the one to catch his kick and pull him close. As soon as he was near enough, she immediately slipped her foot behind his, giving his chest a shove and using her leg to topple him onto his back on the mat. Dave landed with a thud and a cough, blinking the disorientation away. 

Standing over him, Jade grinned and offered him a hand. “What’s with you tonight? Exams made you stale?”  
“No,” he weezed as she pulled him to his feet. “Just warming up, that’s all.”

Jade started off her second assault with a jump kick, and this time Dave was a little more aware. However it took him being knocked to the ground three times before, after a poorly judged kick to his chest (which he caught), he took a hold of her shirt and kicked her other leg out from under her, bracing her fall onto the mat.

Now lying flat on her back, Jade huffed out laughter. “Finally! The Dave I know has joined us.”  
He let her catch her breath, opting to release her and sit down next to her. With the back of his hand, he mopped the sweat from his forehead, glancing aside to watch her tug her hair from its messy bun. It tumbled down her back in tangled waves and sent a wafting scent of her hair product into his face. It smelled like apples, he decided while he watched her attempt to smooth it out with her fingers. “You have so much hair…” he muttered.  
“What was that?” Jade turned, pausing her efforts to peer at him perplexedly. “I didn’t catch.”  
“I said you have a lot of hair,” he repeated, trying to look nonchalant. He was a witty guy, yes, but not quite quick enough to think of any similar-sounding phrases to cover his original one. Well, none that were any better, anyway.  
Luckily for his dignity, she took the compliment well, and he received a beaming smile for his efforts. “Why thank you!”  
“It’d suit me better, though,” Dave added, quirking a brow at her.  
“What?” Jade sat up, looking at her hair and him. “I don’t think so… wait hold still.”

And suddenly she was leaning forward, extending her tendrils of hair like some sort of eldritch horror coming to engulf him into the void. He hair was pretty long, but she had to get close to lay some of it around his face, squinting as she tried to imagine how it would look if he had her hair. He could see the tiniest details of her face now, like the freckles that faintly dotted her tanned skin like stars, or the tiny specks of brown in her green eyes, or how goddamn long her eyelashes were. All at once she was far closer than he had anticipated and he wasn’t sure what he should do, yet couldn’t shake the feeling that he should do something, because sitting there like an uncooked vegetable wasn’t going to help. She had been talking, he now realized, but he didn’t remember a single word she had been saying because her proximity was the only thing he could concentrate on and his senses were being flooded with the smell of apples. 

I would only take a second to lean forward some more and count the freckles on her nose or the ripples on her lips or the brown flecks in those eyes. If he lifted the shades, he’d be able to see her so clearly… was that his perspiration or her breath fogging up his shades? 

Then, seemingly as suddenly as she had appeared, she was distant again. Her sudden movement finally shook him out of his stupor and made him aware of the now blaring sound of the alarm. “…Kaiju?” As his throat had become hoarse, Dave had to clear it after it made a sound not unlike that of a pre-pubescent boy's vocal chords.  
“Yeah. Well, at least we’re already at the assembly point!” Jade chuckled weakly, turning back to him. Then, upon looking at his face, she asked, “What’s gotten into you? You look awfully red.”  
She tilted her head to the side, worry creasing her brow while that mane blocked the light, and he almost told her it was her that had gotten to him.

Almost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! I have a question for you. As this fic is sort of very vaguely working towards some form of conclusion, i'm feeling pretty motivated about planning my next move.
> 
> To be honest, i enjoy writing Davejade. I feel a bit of a one trick pony but they were the only ship i ended up feeling that passionate for -- i'm not really a multishipper and my OTPs tend to emphasize the 'o' part. 
> 
> I've seen a lot of kids movies crossovers which are SO cute. However the only completed one i've found is 'Once Upon A Dissension', based on Anastasia. It was beautiful buy it doesn't fix all the other "3/?" Fusion fics i see lying around. 
> 
> So getting to the point, how would you all feel if i wrote a Disney fusion? Like this fic, where i take characters from one source and put them in the world of another source. Where do you think DaveJade would fit in? If you have any AUs or fusions or whatever that you'd like to see, i'd be happy to consider them while my options are open. Leave me a comment or something, let me know if you have been looking for that one fic but the only one you can find hasn't been updated since 1958 :p 
> 
> And as always, thanks for sticking with me!


	15. The Mammoth

“Tez!!! Terezi, get up!” Vriska shook her sister violently, wondering how she could sleep like a rock through all this noise – and there was a lot of it.  
When they had first been hustled to the mess hall for emergency procedure, Vriska hadn’t minded that they’d been kept here while the Gage twins took the case of the Kaiju – the shatterdome would soon have three pilots to share the load, so she couldn’t expect to hog the limelight all the time.

Except now, the Mammoth Apostle was in trouble.

“What is it?” Her throat hoarse from her nap, the younger Scourge stretched and sat up from her position on the cold, concrete floor.   
Vriska’s tone of voice gave her younger sister the immediate impression something was urgent. “We needed to be in our Jager twenty minutes ago.”  
“Why??” Terezi sat up, reaching for her cane and extending it to it’s full length, using it to stand herself up. “Didn’t they send—“  
“Yeah, they did. And they’re getting their asses handed to them.”

Vriska trotted down the empty halls of the Shatterdome to the hangar, her sister following closely, her kane scraping across the braille trail tiled into the floors as they hastily made their way.   
Suiting up was a process in and of itself. After changing themselves into a skin-tight suit of memory fabric (essentially an overpriced leotard,) they took an elevator to a chamber near their dorm, where they would be directly put into their Jager’s head.

As Vriska was standing patiently, trying not to swat at the hovering engineers while they jigsawed the pieces of plating onto the girls’ bodies, the doors slid open with an audible hiss, followed shortly by the sound of heels clacking on the steel floor.

“Hello ladies,” cooed a familiar, husky voice. The Marshal stepped in front of them, far enough to be out of the way but close enough to be seen and heard properly. “How are we feeling?”  
“Tired,” huffed Terezi as she fidgeted with her left forearm plating.  
“Well, you can’t afford to be,” replied the Marshal, straightening her back. She wore a solemn look, one which pissed Vriska off a bit. Like she’d already accepted the Gage twins were dead. “If you make it there in time, you girls will be the only ones standing between that Kaiju and the Apostle.”  
“We’ll make it,” snapped the elder Scourge, peering up from under her lashes as the Marshal with the most defiant look she could muster.

The Marshal simply raised an eyebrow, locking eyes for only a second before turning away. “I certainly hope so. Good luck out there today, girls.”  
“As if we’ll need it!” Terezi saluted just moments before the helmet came down over her head.  
Suited and ready to roll, the girls stepped through the threshold and into their Jager, ready to rush to their colleagues’ aid. Vriska helped her sister into the cockpit brace before taking her place on the right hand side. Terezi took the left, since her older sister’s arm was stiff from nerve damage – an injury from battles long past. The left arm had since been replaced, but Vriska had since taken the right side to make use of her better arm.

“Ready?” Terezi nodded, letting her head lull back into the brace as her mind snapped out, like a magnet, and fused with her sister’s.  
Terezi’s memories flew through Vriska’s head – except most were only thoughts, feelings, smells and sounds. She saw herself from Terezi’s eyes, picking up a welding torch in a work shed. After that, all she could feel were memories without sight – but they were just as vivid. The sound of long weekends watching Judge Judy, the frustration as she learned to use a cane, the feeling of safety as she buried her face in someone’s neck, smelling of cologne and sweat and apples.  
Then it was over, and they were falling.

\---

“Come on, you motherfucker!” Vriska gritted her teeth, trying her best not to let the grunts of effort from her sister and the feeling of sweat trickle down the back of her neck distract her from this deadly encounter. Well, deadly for them. Not for her. She shuddered as, in the shallow embankment, she felt their Jager’s foot kick something large and metallic. As hard as she tried not to think about the fact that it was the broken body of the Apostle, the thought crept to her mind as the girls threw fist over knee over shoulder at the beast.

“Marshal! Where’s medical support!?” Terezi demanded, huffing as they slammed the Kaiju’s head down.  
A muffled, digitally filtered voice came through their headsets. “It’s too dangerous, you’d fighting that think right on top of them!” Terezi growled, and the Marshal continued “There’s no way we’ll get to them in time, their cockpit is most likely fl—“  
“Just DO it! We’ll drag it away. There’s a change they have air, and that’s a chance you’re going to have to take.” Vriska and Terezi lifted their fist, reaching forward and grasping the Kaiju by it’s neck. They lifted it and rolled it away, stepping away from the carcass of the downed Mammoth Apostle to give the medical units room to move in.

The Kaiju stood and growled, a horrible rumble that flapped its gills. Now that it was standing still a moment, they had a good view of it. It’s body was wily but fast – perhaps the feature that was the bulky, slow Apostle’s downfall. Another might be the acidic tentacles, like that of a jellyfish, that hung off it’s head, neck and back. Jagers were made out of material that resisted Kaiju Blue, but hours of fighting took its toll on the solidarity of the joints. 

Luckily for the girls, the Gage boys hadn’t failed to take their toll on the Kaiju, and it wouldn’t take them long to bring it down. The Scourge Trader was more agile than the Apostle, and those tentacles seemed to cause it pain when torn out. 

The Scourge lifted its fists and wacked the Kaiju across its face, then gripped it by the tendrils to hold it down while the girls repeatedly slammed a knee into its gut. The Kaiju broke free however, slamming itself into the gargantuan machine. The girls caught their balance and stepped back, opening the palm of the Jager. Out of the right hand, eight capsules rolled into its fingers, all flashing red. They thrust their right hand forward, sending the oversized grenades hurtling into the Kaiju. Most hit, and exploded on impact. Some of them erupted with regular fire, while others sprouted spikes and stuck themselves deep into the flesh of the kaiju, spitting sedative into its blood, or chemical acid, or spraying hot water all over the monster’s skin. It wailed terribly, a piercing sound that cracked and rumbled as it threw its head back in pain.

As a final blow, that spread their arms, balling the jager’s hands into fists, and brought them swinging around to bash the Kaiju either side of it’s head. The skull gave with a sickening crunch and the monster crumpled, falling into the ocean with a great splash.

Long moments passed before Terezi caught her breath enough to speak over the comms. “How are they?” Her question hung in the air, though she could hear muffled speaking on the other end.   
“Hey!” Vriska butted in, trying to get someone’s attention.   
It was several moments before they got their answer, a bassy shuffling and bumping sound of someone sitting down preceding the Marshal’s voice. “The oxygen filter in the Apostle flooded with water long before you girls got there. The vessel is being retrieved as we speak.”  
Vriska clenched her fists, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. She hated failure, and in her mind, she had failed.   
“No, Marshal.” Terezi’s voice was even and calm, not a hint of upset in her tone. If anything, it was steadied with purpose – perhaps not a detail the Marshal picked up on, but one her sister saw immediately. “We’ll do it.”  
“I beg pardon?”

And with purposeful strides, the Scourge Trader made its way to the wreck of the Mammoth Apostle, the boats and helicopters hovering around it moving out of the way when they realized she was moving toward them. They nudged the boats out of the way and dipped their hands into the water, dragging the crippled Jager out of the depths. 

Together, with a swarm of aircraft following along, Terezi and Vriska carried their fallen comrades home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooh boy, that was a little heavier than i originally anticipated. Still, those one and a half of you who are actually following this (you're my favorites) might be excited to know that i've been doing some planning for a certain Jager's design and i'm pretty proud of what i've thought up. Look forward to that in a few chapters' time! I can't say how many yet, but the events in between that mean i'd probably estimate its reveal somewhere between chapter 18 and chapter 21. Hang in there kiddos, and thanks for sticking with Halves!


	16. Going Threadless???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> These chapter titles are getting weirder and weirder. In case you couldn't tell, i'm not very good that them.

In the end, callbacks for the final Sim tests got pushed back a week in order to make room for funeral preparations. After the family of Bruce and Trevin Gage held their service, the Shatterdome was hosting a State memorial service on the its airfield, followed by a massive street party hosted by the council. A street party wasn’t exactly traditional funeral activity, but they did it to boost morale in the populace. Many cities around the country did it to honour the fallen. In a way, it brought people together somehow.

The funeral was tomorrow, and Jade didn’t have anything especially suitable to wear. She had one sort of blue and black dress, but it was more of a homecoming dress than conservative funeral wear. Out of options, she was forced to consult Rose.

Jade moved along the corridors, picking dirt from her fingernails with slight nerves as she went. It was two in the afternoon and she hadn’t seen Dave all day – she got a feeling he might be avoiding her. Ever since the lockdown he’d been weird. The only reason Jade hadn’t quizzed him about it was because he might just be sad over the deaths, and she sensed that it might be a delicate subject, all things considered.  
Jade’s lively rapping on the door only took moments to summon it’s resident, but not the resident she was looking for. A tall, willowy woman with neatly cropped dark hair opened Rose’s door instead, raising her carefully drawn brows with a friendly smile. “How may I help you?”

Jade bristled, scolding herself internally for being so thoughtless. Of course Rose had a roommate! This might be the ‘fashionably gifted’ one she often talked about. What was her name, again? Kate… Candy… Candice… Cordelia? Kayla? Some weird sounding K name. “Ah, sorry to disturb you. I was wondering if Rose was around?”  
“Ah!” Rose stuck her head out from behind her roomie. “Jade! What a lovely surprise.” Rose finished tugging off her coat, apparently just finished a shift in the lab. “I don’t believe you two are acquainted. Jade, this is Kanaya, the young lady who rooms with me. Kanaya, this is Jade.”  
“Oh yes,” Kanaya said, recognition crossing her face as she stepped out of the doorway to let Jade come in. “Mr. Strider’s young lady friend.”  
“Oh I’m not his… Lady friend,” Jade quickly clarified as she made her way into the small room, which smelled of perfume covering up chemicals – possibly from Rose’s coat.   
Kanaya raised an eyebrow, tilting her head. “But you are his friend who is a lady, no?”

“Anyway,” Rose interrupted softly, inclining her head. “What can we do for you, Jade?”  
“Well, I’m actually here to ask for a favour. Since cadets are part of the Jager program we’re required to ceremonial thingy….” Jade began carefully.  
“A thingy?”  
Jade smiled, chuckling faintly. “Uh, those leaf things. Wraiths, I think?”  
Rose raised an eyebrow, her lips curling as she held in gentle laughter. “That’s Tolkien, darling. I think you mean wreaths?”  
“That’s the one!” Jade giggled, then continued, “I have a problem though. I’m not the most conservative dresser, and I’ve left most of my good clothes at home because… well it was silly to think I wouldn’t need them. “  
“Ah, I see. You require clothing assistance, yes?” As Rose spoke, Kanaya sat on a bed jade assumed to be hers and began to put on her shoes. “Well, I’d lend you some but I’m afraid I’m a bit too flat-chested; I feel you could be falling out of any of my garments. However if you have any free time and the funds, I could take you shopping?”  
“Ah, really? I mean if you have time, I don’t really know where anything is around here.”  
“I’d be happy to show you around. Plus, hanging around in a metal cube all day is quite taxing on the senses, don’t you agree?” Rose stood, changing from dorky lab-safe shoes to a pair of flat black ones. “Kanaya, would you like to come along? I mean, if you wouldn’t mind, Jade?”  
“That’s fine by me!” Jade chimed, beaming.  
Kanaya smiled softly up at the girls. “Well, I wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to get out in the open. But, might I ask if we know anyone with a car?” When Rose rubbed her chin in thought, Kanaya spoke up again. “Because I believe Vriska recently procured a vehile, which she’s quite proud of. I’m sure if we asked politely she would drive us.”

Rose chuckled, apparently finding something funny about what Kanaya said, a joke that flew over Jade’s head. “Well, we already knew Kanaya wanted to ‘drive’ with Vriska, but I’ll ask her nonetheless. Go and get dressed, Jade. Those gym clothes are hardly suitable for a Los Angeles shopping trip. I’ll come and find you at your dorm when you’re ready.”

\---

Jade wasn’t sure what WAS appropriate for a Los Angeles shopping trip, so she threw on that blue and black dress with a red bolero and shoes, tied her hair in a high ponytail and opted for her glasses instead of contacts, taking off the straps so they appeared a little more normal. She retrieved her purse and phone from her belongings and had just sat down to wait when she heard a knock at her door. Well, Rose certainly hadn’t taken long!

“Hey, what’d she s—oh!” Jade caught herself when she realized it was Dave, not Rose, at her door. He tried his best to look offended.  
“Jeez, I know I look awfully dashing in the morning but you could at least try to hide your shock and awe,” Dave quipped, leaning on the door frame. Jade’s laugh only fuelled his confidence.  
“It’s 2pm, Dave. Seen Rose around?”  
“Nah, but I haven’t really been looking for her.” Dave seemed to suddenly notice something. “You look like you’re going somewhere?”  
Jade looked down at herself. Her dress was a little crinkled but otherwise she looked overly presentable for hanging around base. “Yeah, actually! I’m going shopping with Rose and her roomie and possibly Vriska.”  
“What, no Terezi?” Dave asked, raising one blonde eyebrow.  
Jade took a moment to reply. She hadn’t really thought about it, but the fact he’d paid any attention to the whereabouts of Terezi gave her a weird feeling. “Not sure,” Jade shrugged, doing her best to be nonchalant. It was really none of her concern. “I suppose she might come along, since Vriska is probably driving us.”  
Dave nodded as he straightened.“Fair enough. Well, have fun,yeah?”  
“Yeah… wait, did you want something?” Jade suddenly remembered he’d come to her door in the first place.

“No… well…yeah, actually, I—“ Dave was suddenly interrupted by none other than the younger Scourge herself, pattering up and head butting Dave out of the doorway. “Shit, Tez, warn me next time!” Dave chuckled.  
“Oh shush, if I warned you it’d be no fun. Hey, Jade! I volunteered to come getcha. You ready? I suppose you are, unless you answer the door naked.”   
Jade blinked under the sudden barrage of information, unable to help a smile despite a spike of disdain that Dave had been interrupted. “Yeah, I’m ready! Let’s get going,” Jade decided cheerfully. She took Terezi’s arm and stepped out of her room, carefully shutting the door after her.  
“Oh,” Jade stopped herself. “Dave, what were you sa—“ she cut herself off when she spotted Dave strolling away down the hallway. “Oh.”  
“Pshaw, he was probably gonna tell you about how he’s a lame nerd with meat for brains. Did you know he illegally downloads music? The audacity!” Terezi told her as she led Jade down the hallway. Somehow, Jade thought it should be the other way around, but she let the Scourge have her fun.

\---

“This is WAY too low cut! I’m laying down a wraith, not clubbing!” Jade’s protests echoed through the changing rooms to Rose and Kanaya, who waited in the wings with armfuls of black fabric.  
“Wreaths, Jade. Wreaths. How about this one?” Rose passed one through, closely followed by Kanaya passing through two more.  
It took a little while, but Jade finally decided on a simple back, pencil skirt dress with a sweetheart neck and off-the-shoulder sleeves, a thin silver belt wrapping around the middle. Rose and Kanaya were pleased with it, especially after she’d initially picked a sparkly, sequined monstrosity that would have made her look like a grieving disco ball. 

“Oh, you guys got stuff too?” Jade noticed more colourful fabric in their arms when she exited the stall. “What’s that for?”   
“Ah, well, the street party is less of a conservative affair and much more of a festival. Lots of dancing and drinks. Something colourful is usually the go!”  
“I hadn’t even thought about it!” Jade admitted, trying not to laugh as she spotted Terezi terrorising the rude store attendant by making her hold and mass her garments. “Should I be looking?”  
“Well, I’m assuming you’d want to be a little more eye-catching than you would if you wore the same clothes you usually do?” Rose asked, quirking a brow and taking a moment to glance up from sorting Jade’s rejected outfits into the racks provided.   
The young cadet blushed, gripping the clothes hanger a little tighter. “What makes you say that?”  
“Oh, nothing,” Rose chuckled, finishing her work. “If you like, we can take a look? Kanaya still has some items she needs to collect.”

As if they hadn’t been there long enough already, they went for a second round of picking and choosing. Vriska had gone to get coffee at least forty minutes ago and had yet to return. Jade mostly wandered the aisles, unsure of what to look for, until eventually she settled on a light pink summer dress with a lacy skirt, which ended in small, unevenly cut layers at the hem. She mostly picked it because it looked like something a fairy would wear, which Jade thought was a cute concept. Rose and Kanaya didn’t put in any protests to her choice, so after the figured out the sizing, Jade decided she was done. 

“Hey, kid.” Jade turned in time to spot Vriska approaching with her hands in her pockets. “Y’all done yet?”  
“Well,” Jade said, turning to the dressing room. “Terezi hasn’t come out yet, and Rose and Kanaya are deciding on some outfits I think.”  
“Aw man, it’s gonna be aaaages!” Though, as if to prove her wrong, both Rose and Terezi emerged. Terezi ended up deciding on nothing, seemingly only having gone in for fun. Rose had a few bundles of clothes with her, and within five minutes Kanaya emerged also.

“Finally!” Vriska dramatised, although she hadn’t really been waiting all that long. Kanaya seemed to stiffen in her presence, a thought which made Jade giggle and think that Miss Maryam was glad she wasn’t a Mr Maryam, or it could have led to some awkward situations.

They made their way out of the store, loaded with bags, and figured Coffee and Cake was in order. Vriska had already had coffee, but if more coffee bothered her, she didn’t show it. As they sat around discussing plans for the next few days, what happened in the Jager, pausing to let people have photos with Vriska and Terezi, Jade felt her phone buzz.

“Who’s texting me?” Jade muttered, digging her phone out of her satchel, more out of curiosity than an actual desire to text at the table.

DAVE: john says the cinema at the ‘big blue mall’ is screening back to the future tonight and wants to know if y’all wanna meet us there at 5:30

Jade raised her eyebrows, unable to recall the last time Dave had texted her. “Hey, guys. John’s invited us to the movies tonight. Back to the Future. Wanna go?” Jade asked her companions. All agreed with varying levels of enthusiasm; Terezi complained about being a seventh wheel but gave her consent nonetheless. Jade grinned and began tapping in her reply.

JADE: the girls say yes :D we’ll see you guys there!  
DAVE: wow jade way to be insensitive some of y’all don’t see shit

That made her crack up, and thankfully Terezi took it well when Jade was forced to share. 

JADE: oh shush! also I can’t believe ‘y’all’ even type with a texan accent :p  
DAVE: now you’re a racist too on a roll there kiddo  
JADE: psssh why don’t you go back to your herd or whatever it is you do in texas  
DAVE: its called a gaggle and hey don’t dis my geese  
JADE: ..geese  
DAVE: a goose is a very respectable animal   
JADE: well I guess twenty geese is twenty times as respectable then!!!!  
DAVE: aw man you know it

“Jade, would you get your face out of that thing? We’re going to drive down to the beach for a bit,” Rose reprimanded Jade, who blushed and put her phone away hastily. Though that didn’t last, as by the time they were seated in the car she’d whipped the device out again.

JADE: rose told me to put my phone awaaay g2g cool guy

Jade put her phone away again and enjoyed the drive, trying to memorise the turns they took and keep track of their location in her mind as they drove. It was coming on toward evening and the ocean looked beautiful. The council took huge efforts to keep the beach clean of Kaiju Blue, a bodily fluid similar to blood or mucus that came from Kaiju. It was acidic and not really good for the environment or for tourists. A lot of people were scared of the beaches, but then just as many figure that the Jagers keep them safe enough, or residents of seaside cities and towns stay with their homes and go to the beach anyway.

They were only going to sit and eat ice cream, but they ended up building a sand castle instead after finding the shop closed. It was a monolith, really, with turrets and separate wings, a little town next to the castle. They had about an hour to kill though, so it wasn’t such a stretch. Eventually though, they got in the car again, ready to head for the cinema. Jade pulled out her phone to tell Dave they were on their way, when she noticed a flood of texts.

DAVE: aight harley see ya  
DAVE: oh man though im totally torn should I get popcorn or chocolate  
DAVE: the two do NOT mix so I can only choose one obvs  
DAVE: chocolate might make me feel sick if I haven’t eaten dinner but popcorn can be dry and gross  
DAVE: i have a real true dilemma here the fate of the world rests in this descision  
DAVE: bet the bridge opened in the first place bc some chump gone to see fuckin princess diaries 3: the royal divorce picked jelly beans over churros and the universe was like nah fuck that guy  
DAVE: the human race is over have a monster  
DAVE: heck have five more  
DAVE: im just gonna keep hurlin these assholes at y’all until someone picks the goddamn mexican donuts   
DAVE: maybe i should pick churros and save the human race and all  
DAVE: id be a fuckin hero  
JADE: down boy! gosh you can ramble, huh? :P well be there soon try not to get too torn up over churros kay??? :D :P xo

“Dave again?” Vrsika asked after spotting Jade laughing through the rear-view mirror.   
Jade nodded with a sigh. “Yeah he sent me like 40 texts while we were gone worrying about popcorn or something.”  
“He does that when he’s bored,” Rose informed the others with a quiet chuckle. “Which doesn’t say a lot for John’s company, does it?”

The girls then launched into a gossip fest about Rose’s date with John and Jade sat happily, listening to the liveliness of the people around her.


	17. Toilet closure, popcorn, Huey Lewis, and the News

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is super-short, i'm sorry! Really i should have tacked all this onto the end of the last chapter -- this section of the story went on for a lot less time than i originally anticipated, so i ended up with this just-over-1000-word little bugger that i'm begrudgingly giving its own chapter so it doesn't intrude on more serious goings-on. My last few chapters have been a bit chunkier but i'm trying to limit my fanfic-writing time so i can finish off my assignments for the year. I suppose chapters 16 and 17 have been a bit of a break in the narrative before we leap back into the heavy stuff. I have a feeling next chapter might make for a very long break actually.... but yes, things are happening. I can now almost certainly confirm that you'll see a new Jager in chapter 20 (I say almost as insurance in case i forget my plans and make it go longer. I have the memory of a senile goldfish i swear.)
> 
> You can look forward to more chapters in the next few weeks as i finish my course. I'll most often update weekdays so keep an eye out, and thank you all for your ongoing support!

“Earth to Daaaaave!” John’s hand waving in front of his face rapidly brought Dave back from his daydream. Well, less of a dayream, more or a concerned and confused thoughtfulness. “Did you hear ANYTHING I just said about Ben Affleck?”  
“Er… did it have anything to do with a little girl’s arms…?” Dave attempted weakly, much to John’s dismay.  
“Nooo,” he rolled his eyes. John decided there was some scheming of the ‘yoghurt in Dave’s shoes’ variety in store for the evening.

“Sorry, man,”: Dave muttered almost sincerely, clapping John on the shoulder. “But hey. What does it mean if someone adds an ‘ex oh’ to the end of a message?”  
John gave him a look like he was wasting his precious time on trivial, non-cinema-related drivel. “Isn’t it a little early for Christmas cards?”  
Dave sighed. “No, it was a text.”  
John suddenly perked up, interested. “OOOOH. Why didn’t you say so! Who’s it from?”  
“Nobody,” Dave snapped suddenly, thought he immediately backed down from super-defensive mode. “Just a friend. Should I be freaked out?”  
“How many?” John quizzed, leaning over to try and see. Dave locked his phone with lightning reflexes.   
“Two.”  
“Two of each or one of each?”  
“One of each,” Dave groaned. He was regretting asking in the first place at this point.  
John rubbed his chin. “That’s a tricky one. It can go either way. One of each is kind of ambiguous. If it was ‘ex oh ex’ you’d be in. ‘Ex oh ex oh’ could mean they just watch a lot of Gossip Girl and you’re thinking too far into it. But ‘ex oh’ is a safe zone. If you act weirded out by it they can be like ‘duh its just a friendly thing’ but if you take it well then it’s whatever you want it to mean. An invitation, per-se.” John leaned back, picking at this rubber phone case. “But shouldn’t we not be talking about this? She could totally see this in the drift.”  
Dave stiffened. “What makes you think it’s Harley?”  
“Dude.”  
“Ugh.” Dave huffed in defeat, throwing his hands up. Then, “But yeah you’re right we should probably not be talking about this.”  
“Heeeeeeeey dudes!” Vriska cooed across the room as the girls filed in. Dave gave John a warning glance, and John made a lip-zip motion before waving at the group. Way to be obvious. Vriska saw it and narrowed her eyes, glancing between the two of you.   
Before Vriska could comment, Rose approached from behind her and gave John a quick kiss on the cheek. He’d already bought Rose’s ticket, and the others wandered over to buy theirs. 

“And may I ask whose film choice this was?” Questioned Rose, watching the other four stand in line.   
John, ever so faintly, squeezed her hand. “Mine!”  
Dave on the other hand only scoffed. “Yeah as if it’d be anyone else, Lalonde.”  
“Well, you never know. I for one think you bear a striking resemblance to Mr. Fox in his younger years, not to mention your impeccable chronological sense. Coupled with your bloated ego, well we may as well be watching you up on that screen. It’s interesting though, the psychological factors that decide what films you enjoy and don’t enjoy, a certain relatability per-se that—“  
“Rose you would not believe how badly I realized I needed to pee just now. Pressure is getting high all of a sudden, maybe it’s because I wanted to be a fireman when I was three or something. Food for thought or some shit for you right there. Anyway bye.” Daves words came out in a mumbled stream, cutting off Rose mid-sentence. She barely had time to recover from the vocal onslaught before Dave had shot off like a rocket, bee-lining for the toilets and disappearing around a corner.  
“Where’d Dave go?” Jade asked, wandering back over with a massive cardboard cup of lemonade and a bucket of popcorn.  
“Toilet,” John pointed with a shrug.  
“To escape my musings, I’m afraid. I wonder if he knows we can see the ‘closed for maintenance’ sign on the men’s room door?” Rose chuckled, setting off John and Jade as well. Sure enough, the sign was there, which indicated he was probable hiding around the corner.  
“What are you chumps laughing about?” Vriska demanded, trying to peer over where they were looking, just as Dave rounded the corner and walked back over with his hands in his pockets. Rose quickly filled her in, and Vriska shouted across the lobby , “Hey Strider! I hope you washed your hands!”  
Dave replied by walking up to her and attempting to smear his open palms on her face and hair. The elder Scourge squealed and writhed away, hiding behind Kanaya, who was suddenly looking a shade redder than usual.

“When you’re all done with your primitive attempts as pranking,” John cleared his throat pointedly, which amazingly got Dave to behave himself and Vriska to stand up straight again. “They’re seating our cinema. Ready to go?”

So they all filed up to the desk to have their stubs ripped, finding their seats among those already in the cinema. Terezi plonked herself down right in the seat next to Vriska, elaving Kanaya with the seat next to Terezi or the seat further down, next to Rose and John, who were now k’noodling and giggling at each other in hushed tones. Jade and Dave were offering each other churros and popcorn, and Vriska was between Jade and Terezi. Dejectedly, Kanaya took her seat and got comfortable with her raspberry Fanta. Even if she couldn’t sit next to Vriska, she could still enjoy the movie. 

\---

After the movie, the seven of them poured out of the cinema, throwing their drinks and empty containers in bins as they went. Jade quietly opted to sit in the back seat of Johns car, watching the two of them converse in the front and trying not to laugh too obviously. When they got going, they were really funny guys. The drive back to base was seemingly too short.

Most of them parted ways with tired goodnights, John and Rose opting to hang out a little longer. As they walked away, Jade opened her mouth to ask if perhaps Dave wanted to do the same, when he spoke first.  
“Hey, we better go to sleep. Long day tomorrow.” Dave cleared his throat, his hands in his pockets and his expression obscured by his shades. He even wore those in the cinema.  
Jade sighed, though not out of fatigue. “Yeah, you’re right. And hey! Thanks for tonight, it was fun!”  
“Don’t thank me, Harley. I just tagged along,” Dave said quietly with a shrug.  
“Well then,” she smiled, grabbing at the sleeve of her cardigan and holding it in her palm. “Thanks for tagging along.”


	18. Lithium Carbonate, Barium Chloride.

In the fluorescent-lit shower room, Jade appraised her appearance in the only full-length mirror she had access to. Though it was fogged up from the humidity in the room, she could see well enough through it. On several occasions over the last few weeks, she had considered buying one for her and the girls in her dorm room, but she was pretty sure that room customisation required residency more perminent than that which she had currently. 

Jade’s hair was pulled into a tight, neat bun high on her head, her bangs tucked conservatively behind one ear. Still having yet to re-attach the straps on her spectacles, she wore them loose as she normally would have. She felt the large round things looked a little bit silly with her hair so neat and tidy, but she discovered they looked a little bit more professional if she let them fall a little lower on her nose. Still unhappy, however, she pulled them off and dug in her cosmetics bag for her lens case. The lenses dried her eyes, and while she liked her glasses and how they gave her a sense of character, she was loathe to look silly at such a solemn event. People had died, and so she supposed she owed it to them and their families to not look like she’d pilfered the better half of a beagle puss. 

Once the contacts were in, Jade looked at herself again. While the sweaty activities of her lifestyle usually meant she skipped the effort of eyeliner, today she wore careful, sharp lines, shaped into small cat-eyes. Leaning forward a bit, she scrubbed at a dot of mascara just under her eyebrow, which was probably dotted there by her eyelashes while the makeup was still wet. And then she turned, examining her dress. It conformed to her shape down past her hips, where it fell more loosely to allow her room to move her legs. The bust at the top took the shape of the top of a lower-case ‘m’ up until the crest of its curve, where thickening triangular straps sat apart across her collarbones. The heart-shaped cut of the bust made her usually toned body look a bit more feminine, though her sinewy upper arms were on full display. She didn’t mind. Anyone expecting a girl who was on her way to being a warrior to have the figure of a dying tree could stick said tree where it belonged. She took one more look, taking care to ensure that there were no spots of dust on the pearlescent black material before leaving the bathroom.

On her way to the main lobby of the Shatterdome, she stopped to grab a silken purse with a thin silver chain and slip her feet into a pair of ballet style shoes with a short wedge heel. Two of the three other girls were in there, sticking in earrings and finishing up their preparations as well. On a whim, Jade decided to wait for them. While they weren’t exactly friendly, the girls weren’t awful either, and neither of them seemed to mind walking in a companionable silence to the main lobby with Jade in tow. 

When they got there, meeting a crowd of most of the other young hopefuls standing with a group of other important people who were to be speaking at the funeral, all older adults in uniform or expensive suits. Jade saw a woman with red-rimmed eyes mouthing what looked like a ‘thank you’ to the Marshal, who stood tall and proud in a naval-looking black two-piece suit, with four buttons on its cinched waist, her medals glinting on her breast and the stars showing her rank on her shoulder. Coupled with a black pencil skirt and her sapphire-adorned cane that she sometimes carried for seemingly no reason other than aesthetics, she looked non-deceptively like a powerful figure. Though Jade was sure the look of condolence on her face was sincere, and she guessed the woman and the man standing next to her must be the parents of the Gage twins.   
Her thoughts were interrupted by someone clearing his throat beside her. She turned, raising her eyes to meet those of the person she expected to be there. Dave was wearing a black suit with a grey and pink striped tie, which wasn’t much different from what most of the other not-yet-ranked boys in the group were wearing.  
“Hey Dave. Pink suits you,” she commented straight away. With only the most minute second of hesitation, she reached forward with a click of her tongue, straightening his tie, which was sitting wonky and slightly loose on his neck.   
Dave looked down at her correction. “Well i’m pretty sure it’s like a taboo to wear red to funerals to pink was the next best thing,” he explained as he subtly tried to assess her outfit. “You look... nice.”  
“What? What’s wrong?” Jade glanced down at herself, nervously touching her hair.  
“Nothing? I said you looked nice,” Dave said defensively, his eyebrows knitting closer together.  
Jade shook her head as she straightened the dress. “Nuh-uh. You hesitated. You said,” she paused for a moment for emphasis, then continued “Nice.”  
“I did not!”   
“Did too!”  
“No.”  
“Yes.”  
“Nope.”  
“Yes!”

“Can it!” Someone in the group hissed. While they’d been having their playful argument, someone had approached with a large circle of leaves with a ribbon over it. He was explaining the procedure of their duties. When called upon, the first alphabetical girl and boy by last name (neither Dave nor Jade) were to deliver the wreath to the memorial stand after the rest of them filed across, boys in a line to the right, girls in a line to the left. Once it had been placed down, they were to file away to sit in the fourth row of seats up the front of the ceremony, behind all the other military personnel. After the service they were to file across the first row of seats in the main crowd after said officials, offer their condolences to the family, then make their way to the back of the crowd. Once that was done, the memorial was over and within three hours the evening festivities would begin. That was the extent of their duties, and any misbehaviour would result in instant expulsion from the Jager program. Like they had to be warned.

After the man handed the wreath tot he appointed bearers and had moved away, Dave leaned over again and muttered “Nope,” to Jade. She looked up at him with a glare that she tried her best to make sincere, but he only looked at her as if she were a cranky gerbil. “You’re lucky i don’t ruffle your hair, because i’m such a good friend,” he informed her matter-of-factly. She elbowed him in the side as they were called to action, the family filing out along with the first of the higher-ups. The cranky man had them assemble into two lines, boys and girls separate. Just as she was moving away, Jade heard Dave mutter “You really do look nice, though.” She turned as she walked, mouthing ‘thank you’ with a smile, before focusing on the task at hand.

As they filed out of the building and across the tar of the parking lot and then to the wide patch of neatly-cut grass between the long boulevard leading up to the facility, Jade heard mutters and excited whispers from her peers. Following their gaze, she looked out to the ocean visible either side of the huge Shatterdome. Spread far enough out to be seen, two rows of Jagers, split either side of the Shatterdome, stood in the shallows of the ocean. The hulking gargantuans were still as statues, standing either right hands raised in salute. Jade only recognized one for certain, the Scourge, which seemed to have been hastily repaired after the last fight. It looked a bit ragged next to its neighbour, a grey Jager which she sort of recalled to be a foreign one from her studies. Most she recognized, either by notorious scratches in paint that symbolised some great battle, or in other cases by sheer uniqueness, like the Crimson Typhoon, one of Jade’s personal favourites. They all stood motionless, and she guessed that the pilots had been flown from their Jagers to attend the funeral. The machines had been brought in from all over the world to pay this tribute, and Jade found it pretty impressive despite their sobering purpose.

“Imagine how much they have to clean that white one, to get it looking like that!” Someone behind her was muttering, and Jade searched the rows to spot a lithe, bright white Jager standing in line next to a Mark 3 she recognized by the round, aperture-esque core in its chest. The white one had horns on its head and a long ‘face’, making it look like some kind of animal. Its paint was pristine, and she didn’t recognize it at all, though judging by the conversations going on around her, none of the others seemed to either.

She was distracted from thinking too far into all the Jagers she wasn’t sure about when they were seated in their row. At least a thousand people sat in chairs on the lawn, a memorial placard on an elaborate display placed at the front of the gathering, beside the rows of seats they sat in. The boys sat far away from Jade, so she couldn’t even see Dave down the row. The girl gave up looking pretty quickly, resigning to her hour-long fate of sitting here picking her nails and tapping her feet.  
It was going to be a long hour. 

\---

Jade met Rose in the bathroom four hours later. Though Rose’s section of the dorm had a bathroom as well, they’d agreed to meet in Jade’s so they could chat while they changed out of their gloomy outfits. Jade released her locks to find, to her annoyance, that her bun had left an undesirable kink in her hair. She was glad for Rose’s company then, because the blonde suggested she tie two strands from the front to the back of her head to cover the kink. 

This conversation inevitably ended with Jade attempting not to fidget while Rose braided strands of her raven hair, figuring that Rose didn’t have a lot of her own hair to play with, and her roomie’s was even shorter. And Jade didn’t regret it either, for when Rose was done Jade had two braids either side of her head, one below the other, that both connected in centre of the back of her head. The ‘tail’ from the top two strands twisted down and was tied off with the tail from the bottom two, resulting in a loose set of braids that looked much like two capital Ys on top of each other. The rest of her hair that wasn’t braided fell in its usual waves, which Jade had combed more carefully today. She had also replaced her glasses, and coupled with the light, airy lace dress she’d bought the hairstyle looked nice, all traces of the bump in her hair fought down. 

Jade, in turn, insisted on helping Rose decide her dress again. After the older girl had done her makeup, they headed back t o Rose’s dorm, where she and Kanaya revealed an almost frightening collection of accessories. Kanaya and Jade both had a criminal amount of fun playing dress up with Rose, joking that if John wore his dorky suit they’d clash so badly. Rose ended up wearing her orange dress, which Kanaya had sewn her. As the sun began to dip into dazzling pink and orange colours across the sky, they emerged from the Shatterdome and into a taxi together. Apparently John and Dave had gone hours ago because they were seeing some live music, much to Jade’s disappointment. The whole car ride, Rose told Jade to stop picking at the tiny fake flowers she and Kanaya had slipped into the gaps of Jade’s braids. The young Harley looked more like a flower child than she originally anticipated and just looking at her appearance made it hard for even her to believe that she was planning on spending her not-too-distant future beating up blubbery, bulbous aliens in a giant robot. Mostly, though, it made her miss her old garden back at home. Back when everything was wonderful and she would play hide and seek in her rows of pumpkin tabled in her greenhouse. It seemed like so long ago now, and perhaps it was. The memory made her heart ache.

The Taxi took them as far as the road closure and they paid the driver. Jades shoes were already blistering her feet a little, so she decided she would just cut to the chase and take them off, stuffing them into the beige shoulder bag she had her phone, wallet and a sweater in before they got too much dirt on them. Rose gave her an amused look as they made their way into the rows and rows of stalls, the street lit only by the dimming twilight and strings of fairy lights which stretched between the stalls and spiralled up the trees.

Jade had never really been to anything like this, and while everything in the stalls varied from decorative pottery to pet supplies, she mostly just followed Rose and Kanaya. It didn’t take them long to start thinking of food, however, as the scents of cooking spices hung over the streets like a cloud. By the time the sun had been down for only an hour, Rose had begun organizing a rendezvous with her boyfriend.  
“The boys met up with some friends a little while ago, they’re going to meet us a couple blocks away where the roads are open for dinner,” Rose suddenly announced, putting up a manicured hand to halt her companions while she read her phone. Jade grinned and Kanaya heartily agreed, asking which street, yet Rose ignored her question to continue reading out the message. “Additionally, John reports that Strider has already had an argument.”

“What!?” Jade exclaimed, shuffling forward to try and read the text over Rose’s shoulder. Her GO!SMS theme was black and grey though, and it was kind of hard to read from a small distance.  
Rose repeated what the message said, then chuckled to herself. “My, it’s only 7:30. That’s impressive even for Dave. I suppose that’s why they’re eager to leave the live entertainment.” The older girl took a look at Jade’s stricken expression and laughed heartily. “Don’t fret, dear. If you hadn’t already noticed, Dave has a hard time knowing when to keep his mouth shut. This isn’t an uncommon occurrence. Besides, they’re leaving now, so that’s that. We’ll meet them shortly for sushi. Sound good, girls?”

\---

Just over fourty minutes later, Dave sat on his stool inside the packed sushi train, clutching his gut like a face hugger had recently up and violated his mouth hole in some obscene manner. Jade was on her fifth seared salmon nigiri, on top of several other dishes, and he briefly wondered as he watched her awkwardly manoeuvre the rice into her mouth if she had been bitten by a radioactive spider with a really good metabolism. After this, however, she finally admitted defeat, beating even John by one roll. After sitting for a few minutes, they were all eager to get out of the cramped restaurant since so many people were waiting for seating, so they collected their plates and paid for themselves. 

As soon as they got out into the open air, Jade realized how stuffy the restaurant had been. She took in a few deep breaths of air, sighing. “Wow, it’s so nice to breathe!” She mused to the others.   
One of John’s friends, a kind of cranky guy she didn’t know, agreed whole-heartedly. This comment, however, was quickly followed up by “...Where the shit are your shoes?”  
“Jade’s a feral island child, Kar,” Dave informed the guy as he clapped him on the back.  
“Don’t do that.”  
Dave patted him on the back a few more times just to spite him, then the others came out of the restaurant.   
Karkat scowled, pulling his phone out of his pocket as an excuse to end the conversation. He’d been planning on pretending he had a text, when he discovered that sometime about twenty minutes ago, he’d actually received one. Terezi had a special phone, provided by her employers in the interest of keeping her in contact, that worked on a smaller scale like a drift. She could control it with a head piece, which allowed to her contact people and be contacted when she was out.

CRAZY DEMON SPAWN: Heeeey Karkles. Are you at this shindig?  
KARKAT: Regretfully, yes. I’ve been roped in with Egbert and his ilk. Dave’s already pissed someone off.  
CRAZY DEMON SPAWN: Is it you?  
KARKAT: No, Terezi, as a matter of fact someone else agrees that he is the biggest douche to ever walk the earth. Idk who he was.  
CRAZY DEMON SPAWN: Well, whatever. You guys should come meet us! We’re hiding out at our holiday home, waiting for the fireworks.   
KARKAT: You can’t see fireworks what are you doing watching fireworks when you have no eyes?  
CRAZY DEMON SPAWN: Wow Karkles you are so rude to me!   
KARKAT: Besides, why do you have a holiday home in an apartment like twenty minutes drive from where you usually sleep?  
CRAZY DEMON SPAWN: Nobody wants to spend Christmas and shit in that clunk-bucket of a place. Now, enough questions! You know the place, bring the gang.   
KARKAT: Right, whatever. See you soon.

“Assholes, we’ve been invited to a hangout at Chateau De Scourge. Care to go? They have a penthouse with a rooftop garden because they get paid way too much fucking money.” Although he sounded angry, Dave knew the guy totally wanted to go anyway. Karkat’s quiet friend with the stupid shades (which were TOTALLY DEFINITELY not cooler than his) agreed with less enthusiasm than one would expect in reaction to a penthouse, while the dude in pajamas was just kind of.... staring. At the pavement. He hadn’t moved since they left the restaurant and he smelled kinda strongly of soy sauce and...herbs. 

Eventually though, everyone decided they had the time and followed teen angst over there to the more residential side of things. They walked in twos and threes, allowing for pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk to move past them easily.

“Hey, flowerchild,” Dave called softly, falling into step with Jade. She looked up with an amused expression, raising an eyebrow.   
“Flowerchild?” Jade questioned, looking him up and down. He wore a white t-shirt with some kind of circular symbol on it and tight maroon jeans, which was a stark contrast to his outfit earlier in the day. She supposed she looked much the same. Dave responded by pointing to the back of her head, and Jade made a sound of recognition. She had quickly forgotten about the little flowers her friends had stuck in there while they waited around. “Oh, right! I got to be a bit of a barbie doll tonight.”  
“I see,” was all he said, giving her a sidelong glance. “Well you suit looking like a hippy, anyhow.”  
“Well, you’re not wrong!” She laughed. “I used to be waaaay into gardening back when i had a house. I’m not quite vegetarian though, i still eat fish.”  
“Disappointing. PETA is crying because of you,” Dave chuckled. “Think of the magikarp, Jade!”  
She giggled melodically, cupping a hand over her mouth as she did. The sound of her feet pitter-pattering along the pavement caught Dave’s attention.   
“Why in the world aren’t you wearing shoes, though? Did you get mugged?” Dave jostles her, pointing to her tiny, almost chubby feet.  
“My fancy shoes gave me blisters and these ones rubbed them so i’m going ‘flower child’ tonight!” Jade announced, a mischievous, knowing smile directed at him sidelong.  
“Yeah, its all fun and games until someone steps on glass,” Dave warned, suddenly conscious of watching the ground in front of her. She only laughed him off, though he continued to watch. John called to him, but he didn’t really hear.  
“Oh, stop worrying! I’m sure—“  
“DAVE!” John shouted louder, demanding Dave’s attention. 

Dave looked up suddenly, wondering why the guy was shouting. He opened his mouth to say ‘what?’ when he heard Jade squeak a warning. Before he had time to investigate the source of her alarm, it had already grabbed him by the shirt, pulled him away from their line of friends, and swung at Dave.

His face exploded in hot, searing pain.

Dave cried out and doubled over, clutching his nose. His ears were ringing, but he could just hear Jade angrily shouting at someone. His eyes watered a lot, but a quick glance up gave him the confirmation that the face of his assailant was familiar. Well, he supposed he’’d deserved it for telling the guy he had a head the size of Venus but he was standing in front of them, swaying around like an asshole so they couldn’t see. 

Someone had a hand on his back, asking him questions, but the noise of Jade’s argument and the others’ panicked chattering made it hard to concentrate. Dear, sweet lord above, his face hurt. He straightened and glared at the dude, who Jade was standing in front of. He almost laughed, she was so small, dwarfed by this tall asshole, but she had her hands on her hips, lecturing him like a child. He tried to push past her, swaying from what he presumed to be seven or eight of the glass bottle he held’s predecessors, but she slapped the bottle out of his hand, shattering glass across the pavement. After a moment he glowered and went to strike her, but she jabbed him in the gut with taut, pointed fingers while whipping up a forearm to block his strike. The guy coughed and sneered in pain as he held the spot where she’d jabbed him, said something highly unpleasant to her, then sauntered off with a pack of his three or four hyenas, still spewing profanities. Most of the group stood there gaping after him, but as soon as the guy was far enough away, Jade turned and pitter-pattered over to where he still hunched, one hand pressed to his nose. He hadn’t noticed until just now, but a tickle on his elbow made him realize that his nose was very much bleeding.

“Are you alright!?” Jade exclaimed, leaning sideways and hanging almost upside down to peer at his face. It hurt to laugh, but Dave did so nonetheless.  
“I am fucking stellar, thank you. How are you this evening?” Dave joked, afraid to straighten in case he let blood drip all over his favourite shirt.   
Jade tried to scold him for joking around but she couldn’t help but giggle a bit. Rose was armed with one of those pocket tissue packets and after equipping him with rolled wads of soft paper lodged up his nostrils, he finally straightened, holding his blood-smeared hand away from his body. It took a few blinks a few seconds to adjust to the nigh apocalyptic scent of lavender drifting in fumes from the tissues, while Jade was busying herself making sure he wasn’t concussed. “Does it hurt?”  
“It feels like a walk though a field of daises. I’m in pure bliss. The last time i felt this good was this one time in high school, it was last day of term so all the shit in the cafeteria was free and they were just handing out apple—“ He stopped talking when she gave him a look that warned him to be serious. “I’ll survive, Harley. I’ve had weirder random acts of violence than this.”  
“This wasn’t exactly random,” John reminded him, but Dave completely ignored him.  
“Like, this one time i was out with a couple of bros right, it was like eleven at night, and this guy who owed me money shows up. So i say dude you got my cash? And he’s like next time you ask me i’ll knock out your teeth. So of course i’m an asshole and ask him again and the guy -- get this – he pulls out a fucking compass.”  
“A compass!” Jade gasped in more of an excited repetition than a request for clarification, apparently more engrossed in the story than he’d initially thought she would be, given that she was trying to be serious moments ago.   
“Dave that time wasn’t really random eith--,” John said. Again Dave ignored him, cutting off the end of his sentence.  
“Yeah like the math-circle thing with the spike? And he stabs me in the gut with it. It was kinda funny actually because the spike was like a millimetre but god damn it got kinda pusey and infected. I bet that thing was sitting in his crusty desk drawer with a plastic bottle bong and some used condoms.”  
Jade pulled a face. “Grooooooss!” 

“Oh my god he’s alive! The cherubs are fucking singing praise the lord. Honestly this is more touching than that one scene from Dreamgirls where they make their bitch friend famous and everybody hugs and makes up. Now can we move it before someone else gets victimised please?” Karkat interrupted the story-telling session with an unamused growl, and Jade seemed to jump like she’d forgotten where they were.  
They got moving again at a less brisk pace, supposedly some unspoken agreement that for some reason having a hurt nose makes you walk slower. After John assessed that Dave’s nose probably wasn’t broken (though he would be enjoying an impressive black eye) they had moved on from the scene of the incident. Dave mopped the red streaks from his arms, running to his elbows like beetroot juice, until he deemed them safe enough to hold near his white shirt. 

If he was being honest, the trip to the apartment got a lot more fun from then on in. Jade paid much closer attention to him, although he was aware this was probably more through concern than anything else. He was also mostly glad his nose wasn’t broken, because that would be a bitch of a thing to deal with when he had to put on a drift headset tomorrow.  
The seven of them all crammed into the elevator at Vriska and Terezi’s building. The doorwoman got suspicious and had to ring up to confirm with the girls that they were expecting guests, but sent them on their way easily enough once she had the word. 

The girls greeted them and ironically enough, Terezi gave the tour. Dave had been there before himself, but for the sake of other parties who hadn’t (not naming any names) he tagged along. The penthouse itself was still amazing though. The bathroom alone was bigger than the dorms back at the Shatterdome and the bath was big enough to fit ten people. The whole place looked like it was built in Olympus, all marble and pillars and masonry, with white and gold upholstery and curtains. Although judging by the lobby of the building, much of the building had been designed this way.   
They didn’t spend a lot of time downstairs though, because upstairs was the rooftop garden.

The pool itself was more like an oasis, organically shaped with palms and sand surrounding it. The awnings and the small shed where they kept the mower for the real grass were covered with grape vine leaves, acting as a sort of natural canopy. A few other tenants from the other penthouses and lower apartments milled about, a family off having a barbecue to the far end, but otherwise the place was pretty quiet. They settled down to stare out at the ocean, the gargantuan silhouettes of the Jagers out there making an inky blot on the light-polluted sky. 

Jade, however, was more distracted by the plants. A lot of fruit grew up there, grapes and a lot of berries, mostly, but she was checking the leaves and inspecting the layout of the setting like parties happened every day for her. Rose was next to her, listening to her assess the plants’ health and even take a few raspberries, offering one to the scientist. When Rose politely declined, Dave swooped in and plucked the fruit from Jade’s hand. The girls chuckled and rolled their eyes, the activity soon drawing the attention of the others, who had since realized watching to ocean wasn’t going to make the fireworks come any faster.

“Who wants to swim!?” Vriska suddenly announced as she skipped over. She was obviously already wearing a bikini under her loose-fitting tunic and shorts, so Dave’s best guess was she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. She offered to loan out swimsuits, a prospect which encouraged most of the girls. Gamzee, that pyjama guy, was already in the water by the time she’d finished talking. John soon followed, ditching all but his denim shorts to sit in the shallows and try to strike up a conversation with the weird fellow. All the girls agreed to swimming, Jade proudly announced that she was the best swimmer on her island, and while most were either impressed or guessed she was joking, she shot Dave the quickest of knowing smiles before they disappeared downstairs. Karkat and his other buddy Sollux sat out, though Sollux dipped his feet in. Karkat claimed period cramps.

By the time the girls were back upstairs and into the water, Dave had finally decided to throw away his dignity and jump in in his underwear. John was floating on his back listening to Gamzee talk about constellations, and Dave was attempting to make fart noises with his moist palms. When the rest joined them it got a little more crowded, as the pool couldn’t be too big or deep since it was a rooftop ordeal. They managed though, and the railing allowed them to still see the fireworks through the fence. 

“Rose, that is the ugliest garment I’ve ever seen,” Karkat said matter-of-factly, referring to the frilled, polka-dotted, salmon pink monstrosity that Vriska had given her to wear.  
“Karkat, I demand an apology!” Vriska called over her shoulder while she wrestled Jade, who was sitting on Terezi’s shoulders, while she herself sat on Kanaya’s. After a grunt and a heave that sent Jade toppling back into the water, she turned. “I’ll have you know my fashion taste is impeccable.”  
“I beg to fucking differ on the account that that swimsuit is clinically hideous,” Karkat retorted, while Rose paused her conversation with John and Dave to mockingly strike a few modelling poses.  
“I beg to fucking differ,” Dave cut in, leaning around John to see the kid who was one of the few dry people still there, “on the basis that you tuck your sweater into your sweatpants.”

Echoes and catcalls broke out in the group and Vriska nearly fell off Kanaya laughing. The Maryam, meanwhile, was struggling to hold onto her squirming cargo without passing out or injuring someone. Karkat began to have a field day on Dave’s choices in clothing, but it was cut off by the faint, distant scream of a firework trailing its way into the sky. They all stopped and turned, bunching to the edge of the pool closest to the show. Jade dragged herself out to sit on the side of the pool, her feet still in the water. In a sly attempt to seize the moment, Dave handsomely doggy-paddled over and folded his arms on the side of the pool next to her.

“Kinda a shame you had to go and soak all of Rose and Kanaya’s hard work. I bet they’re crying right now,” Dave told her, his eyes never leaving the popping sparks in the distance.  
Jade believed him only for a second, subtly checking to make sure they weren’t actually crying. “Oh shush, they are not!”  
“On the inside, Harley.” Dave stretched, unwilling to get out of the water on the account that he felt like he was wearing an unfortunate speedo. “On the inside.”  
Jade grunted her submission to his accusations, rolling her eyes with a knowing smile. “Try not to mourn the flower child too much. “  
“Whadd’ya mean? You’re always the flower child, aren’t ya?” Dave raised an eyebrow as he shot her a sidelong glance. The water on her skin reflected the fireworks like tiny stars, and for a brief second, that moment in her memories, the one of her dress, flashed across his mind. He quickly stored that away on the ‘things that are creepy to think about’ shelf.

“Another lifetime, and maybe I could have been.” The sadness in her voice surprised him, and the weight of her losses seemed easier to understand in that moment. He wanted to put a hand on her shoulder but it would be awkward, since she sat higher than him on the edge of the pool. “The world gave up flowers and swimming and pretty dresses a long time ago.”  
“You were wearing pretty dresses today,” he softly reminded her. Their tones, he noticed, were so hished he felt like the others weren’t even there.   
Jade glanced down at him with the saddest expression he’d ever seen on her face. He almost didn’t recognize her, the look was to foreign. “And in three hours we’re going to be out of this pool and back in that big metal box, waiting to find out if we’re going to be more qualified to go to our deaths than the others.” She sighed, and the sound was shaky. “The only reason anyone does this anymore is because billions of terrified people can do more damage than a kaiju ever could. People need distraction.”

Dave sighed forlornly. “The reason people do this is because if we let the fear of those monsters become what we are, then there’s nothing there worth saving. You’re not becoming a pilot to save your family, Jade. You’re doing it so humanity can have their planet back to do the things they love again, be with what they love. The day humanity declines a shindig because it’s too scared to go outside is the day I hand in my resignation. We can’t live like that.” Dave took a deep breath, unaware of how little he’d been breathing while he spoke. Cautiously, as if dipping a toe into unsure waters, he looked up.

She was crying. 

“Oh man, I went too far. I’m really really sorry, Jade. I didn’t meant to be harsh or get up in your grill about—“ He stopped when she looked down and smiled at him. Not a fake smile to reassure him, but a genuine smile that somehow let him know that she wasn’t sad at all.  
“You’re so lame, Dave!” She giggled, smearing the tears off her cheeks only for more to take their place.  
“Huh,” he grunted in surprise, though he quickly recovered. “Thanks, I think?” He was totally unsure how to comfort her or if she needed it.  
“No, thank you. Nobody else is going to lose their family as long as I can help it,” she declared to him quietly, turning her attention back to the fireworks show, which was nearing its end. This was only an attempt to hide the fact that she couldn’t stop blubbering, though, and she quickly reached up to wipe her face again.  
“You’re a strange kid, Harley.” Dave sighed leaning on the edge of the pool. In the dark she almost looked like a mermaid, the way she was perched.   
Cautiously and every so gently, he placed his hand over hers. There was almost nothing romantic in the gesture; he just wanted her to feel better or to at least stop crying. This was uncharted territory.  
Thankfully for him, she didn’t pull her hand away in disgust, but simply used one hand to clear her eyes so she didn’t disturb his. “Thank you,” she replied with a weak laugh. She took a moment or two to compose herself, then sat up straighter, taking a deep breath. After that moment, she peered down at him with that same mischievous look she often wore when she was about to poke fun at him.

“So, how’s your face?”  
“The money-maker is fine, thank you for asking.” Dave tentatively touched his nose with his free hand to find it was still quite sore, but was no longer flowing freely like Niagara Fucking Falls. He was glad she was feeling composed enough to move on from the last subject.  
“Money-maker, huh? Anything you need to tell me, Dave?” Jade grinned, trying to hold in her laughter.  
“Yes, my screen name was Ruby Rim and mine was the best money maker in the business,” he quipped, smirking ever so slightly, a telltale sign he was close to laughter.  
Yet, if Dave was smirking, Jade was practically squirming with amusement. “This is the kind of thing you tell a person first drift, Dave!”  
“Sorry,” he laughed, glancing up at her often.  
“Should beeee,” Jade sing-songed.  
“Well, I’ll make sure to notify you if anything else jogs my memory, kay?” Dave offered, with the slightest and most subtle squeezes of her hand.

The sky exploded in a rainbow of colours as the finale whistled into the distant sky. A faint cheer rose above the city as people celebrated the end of the display. The world seemed to hang for a moment in unified bliss, as if it all paused to ponder the mutual enjoyment of thousands of people over simple chemical reactions in the air. It was definitely, certainly nights like these that made it all worth fighting for.

“Kay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SIX THOUSAND WORDS IS A LOT OF WORDS. I just hope they weren't boring ones, but i figured a nice long chapter to close things off before we move into the final phase of the narrative would have been nice. Some new characters i never intended to include ended up in here because i felt it could have benefited from a bigger crowd and not all of the same old faces. I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and i'll try to update soon!


	19. Trust Exercise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is another long one! I hope you're all holding up ok. If you're marathoning this, remember to drink water and take breaks! Thanks for reading, everyone xo

His hands were smeared with the warm wetness of his blood. It was seeping all over his shirt, and that seemed like the worst thing in the world. He asked Rose and John to help, but they were not sufficiently alarmed by his shirt’s predicament. This was a frustrating situation.

Suddenly, Jade was there, standing over him and patting his back consolingly. She handed him a tissue – no, a handkerchief – and he held it to his nose. The blood on his hands was gone.

When he looked up, he was in her dorm with her and her roommates. He identified them acting out normal activities, such as reading and texting, as if they weren’t there. Was Terezi always dorming with Jade? He was so out of it…

“Daaaaave…” Her voice was soothing. A friend, someone he’d grown close to, though ultimately he still feared another shoulder to lean on. Everyone was always helping him, always playing his hero. One day someone would have to break under his weight…. But not Jade. Her voice was nice, it cooed like a dove or a kitten in bliss. She called out to him. “Dave, daaaaaave?”

Something nagged at his consciousness, like among that ambient hum of the undertones of her speech, she needed his attention. He could give it. Why not? His nose wasn’t bleeding anymore, and she had fixed his shirt. He looked up to find her.

All the girls in the room were sitting on the edges of their bunks, looking down as if they were sad. “Yo….. You guys okay?” He asked, but his voice sounded muffled, and he strained to speak louder than a muffled whisper. They did not hear. One by one, they slid off their beds and disappeared into the floor with a splash. He reached out a hand, trying to stop them. Terezi’s burned eyes were downcast as she slid off her mattress too. His fingers only bushed the soft skin of her hand as it slipped into the void. He tried to reach after her, but his fingers met only the rough carpet. He cried, then. Cried because he’d loved her once, he’d held those hands with an affection that he’d never felt for anyone before, and he cried because he never could place the point where their relationship ceased. All he knew was that by the time she’d begun running off with another dude, he felt nothing for her at all. He cried because maybe she had deserved some effort from him, maybe he should have put up a fight when she had done it, to prove to himself he still cared. But he had known he didn’t, and now for the second time she slipped out of his reach and he was left feeling like he could have done more.

“Dave,” Jade’s siren song returned, dangerously close behind him. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, a shiver running down his spine. He had a sudden thought that he couldn’t let her leave too. As blurry as his falling out with Terezi had been, the point where Jade had become so important was an enigma to his mind. Yet he clung to that uncertainty so he could chase it. He had to.

A dog, white and huge, stood in front of him when he turned around. Behind it, a long hallway stretched to a pair of doors, swinging open in the night breeze. The dog had no eyes that he could distinguish, yet h knew that it peered at him, that it beckoned. And then it turned and walked down the hall, and like a magnet, he moved to follow.  
For what seemed like hours he followed the creature, through searing hot parts of the hall and freezing cold parts as well. At times, he heard gunshots ringing through the halls, and at one point the handkerchief she had given him flew from his pocket and skidded across the floor. The dog whimpered at it, the saddest sound he had ever heard get made, and then began to sprint, howling and keening the saddest song ever sung. He followed.

And when they burst through the doors, the salty breeze whipped his clothes about. Strands of his hair whipped into his eyes, and he struggled to keep track of the ghostly white dog as the ocean air assaulted him.

He halted in his tracks as, almost violently, the wind stopped. An eerie calm settled over the dark and empty beach as he and the dog stood on the rocks, pools of water littered around them. It was almost amazing, really, that he hadn’t stepped in any. As before, the dog stared at him intensely, despite its lack of eyes, and he felt like the creature was glaring at his soul.

Then it leapt into a rock pool.

The splash sounded almost deafening amongst the palpable silence of the beach. Not even the waves tainted the silence – only the splash of the dog disappearing into the calm and still pool like the girls in the dorm. Dave stepped forward to the rock pool, which was so dark he concluded it must be stupidly deep. He rested his palms on his knees, peering into the water. Where was the dog? Wait, he could see something white. Was it swimming back up….?

No, the white object was small, and there was a shadow around it. He watched as slowly, slowly, it rose, his heart racing with anticipation. After what seemed like hours, it broke the surface. A flower. Its petals snowy white, caked with frost which seemed to drop the temperature around him considerably. He was no longer at a beach, but in a snow-covered forest with green-trunked trees, only sparse red flowers similar to the four-petaled one in the icy pond. As he watched, the flower rose and rose until the object it sat in began to breach the icy surface.

With the stem of the white flower wedged between her two knitted hands, a body rose from the water. A light lacy dress clung to the soaked body, and hair spread across the surface like ink. Skin, once smooth and tanned, was sickly pale and icy, knuckles and nose red and splotchy with the cold. Eyes stared directly at him, wide and etched with fear for whatever had placed the body there.

It was Jade.

Just as his mind went blank, Dave was aware of warm wetness in his nose, and tore his eyes from the horrifying scene before him long enough to watch blood dripping from his face sock into the snow at his face, and from that blood another red flower formed to adorn her freezing grave…

\---

With a jolt, Dave sat up in his bed. The hand on his shoulder retreated hesitantly, and Dave looked over at his brother with an apologetic look. “Sorry Bro, I was havin’ some wicked nasty dreams. What time is it?”

It was a silly question to ask someone who barely talked, but Dave was in the habit of asking his brother questions anyway. He hoped it made the guy feel included, at least. He was handed his phone and checked himself – it was 9:03am, and his Brother was pointing at his face.

“What?” Dave asked, and then touched his nose after he felt a tell-tale tingle. Sure enough, his face was smeared with blood, probably the aftermath of having bumped it. Hell, maybe his dream was trying to tell him to wake the fuck up and wash his face. Or, he hoped that was what it meant. He shivered at the thought of it. “Fuck. Thanks man, I’ll be back.”

The trip down the hall was a real walk of shame. People rose early in his workplace and all of them gave him a concerned look as he held his nose as if his dignity was leaking out with the blood – which it kind of was. 

The nosebleed was probably the aftermath of a run-in with some guy he’d pissed off the night before. The guy had, presumably by chance, run across Dave again later in the evening and clocked him one right across the face. His nose had been punched before though, and he knew it would take a few days for it to heal and stop bleeding at the drop of a hat. Until then, all he could do was wash his face. 

Staring at himself in the mirror, he could see that the cause of his nosebleed would be no secret. He’d managed to dodge a black eye but his lip was split and looking a little swollen. His hair was gross after last night’s dip, clumping together in greasy strands behind his pushed-up glasses. He practically threw his duffel containing all his shower needs (towel, clothes, and a toothbrush) into the cubicle to shower. 

He had exactly fifteen minutes before he was expected at the sims for his final test. Somehow the finality hadn’t quite dawned on him yet, but he was strangely calm about the ordeal. Today, he would attend a fake fight with a Kaiju with his friend and kick the asses of the other snot-nosed candidates so he and Jade could have something to show for their lives. Then they would get in a Jager and do it for real until they ended up a minimum of six feet under, depending on the means of departure, so to speak. No biggie. Why worry about that when you can be doing a kick-ass shower performance of Funky Town?

All idiocy aside, he knew he needed to focus. It wasn’t just his ass on the line today, it was hers as well, and he felt they’d both been working for this long before they had even met. In a way, the chance of their meeting had served only to make their dreams come to fruition via paired effort. Had anyone else taken her place, he may have been teaching miserably and wallowing in grief and confusion for the rest of his life. And today, all the shit that had happened the past few weeks had come to a head. It was make or break time.

“Hey, man!” John flagged Dave down as soon as he’d stepped out of the showers, his head of messy black hair seemingly more unkempt than usual. Dave guessed the loveable clown had recently gotten out of bed, his hairdo making his white coat look more like a bath robe. “Big day, huh? Come on, we’re gonna have breakfast, buddy.”   
Dave was clapped on the shoulder and steered down the hall, without even a chance to ditch his shit or take the towel off his neck. “We are? And who’s we?”  
“You and me buddy. And Rose. And others. Just shut up and walk, cool guy!” John waved a hand dismissively as they marched.

It was pretty early, but it was weird to see fewer people around. Usually the halls were swarming by this hour, but after the festivities last night, it looked like some people were taking a few extra minutes to sleep in. Dave had had a similar luxury, since their test wasn’t until early afternoon, but he’d been woken up by… he shuddered to remember it. Gross creepy dreams were not a thing he wanted to be thinking about at this time. 

They burst through the cafeteria doors and were greeted by shouts of greeting. Almost everyone he knew in the ‘Dome was there, sitting around a table covered in trays of bacon, eggs, toast, hash browns, tomato, mushrooms and sausages. It was quite an impressive spread, he had to admit. He was guided into a seat as he chattered in reply to shouts of greeting. 

“You guys,” he huffed, raising his eyebrows at the display. “This is a sicknasty spread you got here.”  
“Courtesy of my influence, obviously,” Vriska chimed through a mouthful of scrambled egg -- the picture of grace and beauty.   
“Aren’t they amazing for doing this?!” He noticed Jade for the first time when she spoke, and he didn’t know how he’d missed her. That impressive mane of wild, unbrushed hair he’d experienced a few weeks back (it seemed like so long ago since that first lockdown with her) was back, with a set of crumpled pyjamas to top it all off. Her glasses hadn’t been re-acquainted with their straps since last night. 

“Holy shit, Simba. I’m a huge fan,” Dave replied to her with a wry grin. She pulled a mock scowl and flicked a piece of egg at him.   
“This is what chlorine does to a person, Dave. There’s three little girls lost in my hair now, and we may never see them again!”  
“Hush now, Jade. Dave needs to eat or else he’ll flunk you and you’ll both enjoy a long, boring life working in Accountancy,” Rose cooed from a few seats down, and Dave poked his tongue out at Jade when Rose wasn’t looking before digging into bacon and eggs like an animal.

\---

Jade had spent the morning since she’d been woken up stressing like a motherfucker. All that she’d worked towards was decided today. By bedtime tonight, her fate would be decided. And she hated the finality of it all. But being with her friends, eating and being legitimately happy had calmed her nerves to no end. Seeing Dave as well, looking as relaxed and carefree as he usually was, worked wonders for her confidence. If he wasn’t worried, neither was she. Her best was all she could do, and her best would be enough. For her sake and for Dave’s, it would have to be.

The rest of the morning after breakfast had been spent listening to music. Jade had quietly slipped away to spend some time on her own, plugging in her ear buds and cranking some Jack Johnson to make her feel better. When her wanderings led her to the Hangar itself, however, she was quickly taken aback. Staring in awe, she pulled the sound devices from her ears to gaze up at the gargantuan sheet of fabric covering what was obviously a new Jager.

Its head was tall and sharp, and it wasn’t particularly broad. These were the only details she could get from the sheeted silhouette, but something in her stomach swelled when she saw it. Jade was smart; she could put two and two together. This was the new Jager. Excitement, anticipation and fear filled her, and she suddenly, in that moment, wanted nothing more than to lift the sheet, as if the Jager could whisper to her whether she was meant for it. Whether they were meant for it. Dave and Her. Her and Dave. Her co-pilot Dave. Co-pilot. Jade mouthed those words, trying to get used to them. If all went well, then she would have plenty of opportunity to get used to—  
“Well, fancy seeing you here. Don’t you have places to be?” Terezi’s raspy voice interrupted her thoughts. Jade blushed, feeling embarrassed without quite knowing why, and spun to face the blind girl. 

“Soon, I suppose,” Jade answered with a shrug, forgetting that the other girl couldn’t see it. “How’d you know it was me?”  
Terezi herself shrugged one shoulder, a sly smirk tugging at her lips. “Trade secret,” she replied, tapping her nose. “I guess you’ve seen the new arrival?”  
Jade turned back to the hulking figure, gazing up the huge white sheet. “It’s so….”  
“It’s hard, isn’t it? Describing the feeling, I mean. You’re excited but you’re scared. It’s like you’re looking at your own coffin, but you can’t help but think it looks cool, no?” Terezi’s words floated forward over the distant noise of angle grinders and cleaning machines working on the Scourge.   
“That pretty much sums it up, I suppose…” Jade sighed wistfully.   
Terezi stepped up next to her, sniffing the air in a peculiar way similar to an animal.   
“Of course, there’s still the exam,” the older girl reminded Jade.

She nodded, thought again she remembered the other girl couldn’t see. “I’m confident. It’s probably misplaced and optimistic, but I just have this feeling that I don’t need to worry. I know I can do it, you know?”  
“But,” Terezi said softly, “Do you know he can do it?”  
The question halted Jade for a moment. Did she? She didn’t know. “No. I guess I don’t. But I don’t think I care if he can or not, because I know he’s going to try his best, and that’s enough for me.”  
Suddenly, Jade’s companion began to laugh. Softly at first, but then properly. Wondering what she’d said, Jade turned and tried to figure it out.   
“Ah, Jade,” Terezi sighed when she’d finally calmed down. “I’m glad you said that.”  
“I’m glad you found it so funny,” Jade said, her tone slightly colder than she intended.  
Terezi didn’t seem to notice, or if she did, she ignored it. “If there’s one thing I know about Dave Strider, it’s that he hates to let people down. It kills him.” Terezi’s tone was suddenly soft and gentle, like she was speaking to a sick child or a dying grandmother. “The sad part is that he’s like that because everyone in his life has let him down or left him standing on his own.”  
“…Ah,” was all Jade could say.   
“By the time I drew that conclusion though, I’d done it too.” Terezi patted Jade on the shoulder empathetically. “He’s not gonna let you down in a million years, so you better learn from my mistakes and treat him as well as he treats everyone else. He deserves it.”  
“I,” Jade stuttered, taken aback by her words. Terezi put a hand over her mouth, stopping Jade’s words.

“You wouldn’t disregard a blind woman’s wisdom, would you?” The girl grinned with her jagged-toothed smile, chortled, then walked away with a pluck in her step, all traces of her solemn mood gone as Jade stared after her. “Good luck with your exaaam!” Terezi called over her shoulder, just before she disappeared behind a pile of packing crates.

Wistfully and with a heavy heart, Jade heaved a sigh strong enough to topple the Jagers like dominos. While the enigma of Dave and Terezi had been somewhat of a subject she was curious about, neither of them seemed to have much acknowledged it until now. Jade had daydreamed a conversation with Terezi about this on occasion – who didn’t create fake scenarios in their heads? But of all the feelings she’d imagined herself having after that discussion, sadness wasn’t one of them. Sadness for Terezi, sadness for Dave, but most surprisingly, sadness that they’d parted. It sounded painful, and as much as that nagging jealousy hung in the back of her mind like an itch that couldn’t be scratched, she couldn’t bring herself to be glad that things had ended that way.

Jade squared her shoulders, shaking those thoughts from her head. Now was not the time to be worrying about that – like Terezi said, Dave had been let down too much in his life for her to ruin his big break by being plagued with worry. She had to be strong and trust he would be as well. 

The flowery green watch on her wrist told her, to her surprise, that she still had an hour or so until her exam. Yet Jade, after a moment’s deliberation, decided she’d try and get there early anyway just to watch. Dave would likely be there already, and she wanted to demonstrate her punctuality. Though she’d gotten up early… maybe a nap would be a good idea? She’d set an alarm to wake up twenty minutes before their exam – plenty of time for a power nap. Jade hurried in the direction of her dorm after reaching her conclusion, as she wanted to get as much sleep as she could.

\---

God, where was she?  
Dave nervously checked his watch, the minute hand moving ever closer to the hour. Jade had fifteen minutes until they were called up and she was nowhere to be found – no texts, no calls, no word, nothing. He was getting concerned, to say the least.

John was in the viewing deck with him, and if he noticed her lack of punctuality, he didn’t mention it. However, when Dave turned to tell him to stay and keep an eye out, he seemed to understand easily. “Ask Rose if you see her!” Dave nodded his approval of the advice and slipped out of the room.

Dave wasn’t going to panic just yet, but he couldn’t help but shake the feeling that she was running from the giant robot altar. Maybe she’d gotten sick of him? Decided there was no chance? Thought he was a wuss because he got whacked across the face? The possibilities were endless, and he had to keep reminding himself to keep his head level and his thoughts out of worst-case. She probably got lost, or someone pulled a prank on her again. It wasn’t like that was an unusual thing, especially since they were about to undertake the final exam. Who knows what happened?

“Her dorm?” Dave muttered to himself as he almost trotted down the hall, trying to walk as fast as he could while still looking nonchalant. It took him mere minutes to reach it, and he knocked a little too hastily.

“Jade?” He called, waiting very still to listen for a reply. When none came, he was about to let his panic and ‘worst-case-scenario’ side take over, until he heard the unmistakable sound of a snore. Dave had to clap a hand over his mouth to stop himself from giggling.

She was asleep.

Now, though, he was faced with a dilemma. Would it be weird to go in there? Was her horde of scary roomies in there with her? He supposed not, if she was sleeping. At this point, though, his options were to wake her or fail them both. He went with the obvious choice.

Gently, he turned the handle, finding it unlocked, and peeked inside. He could see the dark lump of her form on the top bunk and he cursed her for sleeping there. As if treading on ice, Dave slipped inside, avoiding disturbing any of the stuff on the floor (there was a LOT of stuff on the floor) like the plague. Finally he got to her bunk and climbed a few rungs of the ladder.

She was sleeping sprawled, limbs hanging off the bed and her mouth hanging open in the absolute picture of grace and elegance.

“Jade,” Dave huffed, rolling his eyes. This was ridiculous. “Wake up,” He prompted, when Jade refused to budge. He reached out and hand and shook her shoulder.  
Finally, she stirred, but not in the way he wanted her to. Instead of waking up so he could get out of her dorm and stop feeling to creepy, she grabbed his arm and folded it under her own arms like a teddy bear, pressing her face into the back of his hand. Dave coughed to hide whatever putrid reaction he was about to uncover from the depths of his face, suddenly nervous as all hell. Luckily, he easily pried his hand free and shook her more adamantly. This time, she woke.

She stretched first, a tired frown at his disturbance on her face. She pushed her mane out of her face and opened her eyes, gazing at him with sleepy confusion before it clicked. “Oh, shit! What time is it?”  
Dave smiled ever so slightly, glancing down at his hands to hide his expression. “S’all good, you got a few minutes. Have a nice nap?”  
“Yeah… sorry, I thought I set my alarm!” Jade sat up in her bed and stretched, the covers falling to her waist to reveal the most eye-assaulting squiddles shirt known to man. Dave refrained from comment. “Are you ready for…”  
“Yeah,” Dave replied before she could finish her half-assed sentence. “Well, ready as I’ll ever be. You?”  
“Ahhwwh! Saaaame,” Jade yawned, gazing at him quizzically. “I hope you didn’t sneak in here too suspiciously, you shady character.”

“I see what you did there.”  
“It was great wasn’t it?”  
“It was bad and you should feel bad.”  
“Oh pssshaw,” Jade dismissed, pretending to push him off the ladder. “But yeah we should go…”  
“Yeah,” Dave agreed, climbing down and standing around as if waiting.

Jade peeked over the edge of her bed. “Um….?” Dave raised an eyebrow, prompting her to state her concern. “I’m not wearing pants,” Jade sighed, pulling her blanket closer.  
She had to try not to laugh when he blushed. “Right, yep. I knew that.”  
“That even worse!!!!” Jade teased, and next thing he knew a pillow was flying straight at his head. “Wait outsiiiide!”  
“Oh my god I’m going. I’m so going. I’m going so fast Sonic just shed a tear. Please don’t kill me,” Dave held up his hands in surrender, but she stopped him with a wave of her hand. 

“Don’t worry, my pants are here. Just turn around and I’ll be with you in a sec,” she asserted, and after he promptly obeyed, she began to wriggle into the jeans. “So, o’ wise sensei, you got any last-minute advice for us?”  
“At this point, if I had anything else I thought I needed to teach you, I’d be very concerned.”  
“Good point,” Jade grunted as she tugged her jeans over her hips.   
“If I’m being real though, it’s just like any other sim. We’ve done this before.”  
Finally, her fly was closed and she was adjusting her twisted garment. “A few times,” she prudently reminded him.

“Not getting nervous on me are you, Harley?”  
Jade crawled to the edge of her bed. “No, nothing like that. I just… I guess I’m just worried we’ll be beaten out for it.” And that she’d disappoint him. No way she’d say that though.  
“Relax. We’ve got good…” Dave paused, wondering whether chemistry was really the word he should use. “Uh. You know. We’re good.” He sighed. “Just remember that the Ma—“ Dave’s sentence was interrupted by a loud thunk, and he whirled to see her toppling off the bunk.

Reflex kicked in and reason flew out the window, resulting in Dave doing the sickest power-slide catch of a distressing dame that anyone ever saw get done. Sure, he carpet-burned the fuck outta his knees in the process, but that was the sweetest catch ever known to man. 

“Oh my god I just died,” Jade was in a tight ball, her eyes squeezed shut. “I died didn’t i?”  
“I know I have the looks of an angel, Harley, but no. Sorry to disappoint,” Dave chuckled at her, earning a look when she opened her eyes.  
Jade huffed in relief, obviously relaxing now that she’d avoided injury via bunk-bed, thanks to Dave. “Yeah, yeah, thanks for catching me sir Angel.”  
Dave smirked, peering at her sidelong. She was pushing stray strands of her hair out of her face haphazardly. “You’re welcome,” he told her, then added “You okay?”  
Almost visibly, the girl softened. “Yeah, I’m all good. You?”  
“My knees are used to –“ Dave began, then stopped when he saw laughter spread from her eyes to her growing smile. “Wow Jade, just wow. “ Jade didn’t stop laughing. “I can’t believe you would indirectly call me a floozy like that. You’re breaking my heart,” he cooed dramatically, which only made her laugh harder. Finally he sighed. “Well if you’re gonna be like that I guess I’ll just…” He loosened his grip and pretended to drop her.

Either thinking he was going to actually let her roll off his arms onto the floor or simply acting on reflex, Jade squealed and flung her arms over his shoulders. Her sudden proximity caught him off guard and he toppled forward as a result, her weight tugging him off balance until they landed heavily and he nigh on crushed her rib cage with his chest. 

“Owwww!” Jade whined, attempting to push him off.   
“Sorry,” Dave said quickly ad pushed himself up by his arms, face bright red. His shades dangled off his ears, sitting low on his nose and threatening to slip off altogether. His companion’s silence drew his gaze, and she was staring at him with a weird kind of fascination. “…What?”  
“Oh I just…” Suddenly she seemed to wake from a daze and shifted, trying to look elsewhere. “I’ve never seen them for real. That’s all. Your eyes, I mean.”  
“Ah,” Dave said and quickly reached up to push the spectacles back onto his head. She stopped him with a hand on his wrist.   
“You don’t have to. Hide them I mean. I mean I’ve seen them, in your memories. I know all about…” Jade waved her hands vaguely, struggling to formulate her words. “Just, I don’t want you to feel embarrassed. Today of all days, I need to know that you trust me.”  
Dave gave her a long, hard look, a slight frown tugging on his brow, and for a few stressful moments she thought he was going to shoot her down. Instead, he nodded. “Sorry. I just… it’s my first reaction. I don’t mind that you know. I trust you or… whatever I…” 

Suddenly, he was aware of how close she actually was, and almost reeled backwards in alarm. He stare was almost stifling, how close it was, and he felt like she was gazing into his goddamn soul. Like if he leaned too close she’d be able to read his thoughts and find out he wished he didn’t have to pull away. But pull away he did. He sat up and then stood, helping her to her feet. “We should—“  
Jade leaned forward and hugged him, pressing the side of her face to his chest in a choking hug. “Thank you!” At first he thought she was crying, but she was actually laughing. Honestly, fully, laughing. “It means a lot, and I just know we’re gonna blow the rest of them out of the water!”

He opened the door for her once she released him and they walked briskly to make their deadline. Yeah, he thought. They’re gonna blow that shit so hard out of the water it’d put Free Willy to shame.

\---

They punched the kaiju so hard outta the water that Free Willy sobbed in his grave. 

“Around it?” Jade shouted to him, and he responded with a mental nod. Together, the steered their imaginary Jager around their simulated enemy, grasping it by the fleshy folds on the back of its neck and wrapping their arm around its neck, squeezing tight. It broke free after a few seconds, and they were ready. They stepped forward, still holding its flesh from its back, and stuck a leg behind the creature, pulling back until it toppled backward into the water.

“Knee cannon,” Jade proposed, and they reached forward to activate the feature. They lifted the Kaiju and slammed their knee into its chest just as an explosive drum shot from a cannon in the Jager’s knee and exploded on impact with the digital Kaiju’s chest. A gaping hole, dripping blue blood, was left like a crater in the aftermath. 

Dave and Jade clenched their fist and started hammering the visibly fatigued kaiju. Both were drenched with sweat after two hours of the simulated fight and were ready to end it, though both knew they couldn’t let eagerness cloud their judgement in the final minutes of their trial. “Nearly there, keep it down!” He shouted to her, grimacing as they pounded their fist into it. Jade’s primary arm, her left, held it down, and Dave’s arm punched its face, the crumpling of bone and cartilage under their fist seeming sickeningly real. After the seventeenth punch or so, the thing finally stopped moving. 

The two paused, keeping the body held until their mock command crew gave them the all clear that the kaiju’s vitals had ceased. They were given that command, and sighing in relief was all they could do to stop themselves from collapsing. The simulation as shut down, and their crew (trainees, apparently) de-suited them quickly. Immediately after being freed from their headgear, the two exchanged a glance of excitement. 

The exam was over, and all they had to do was wait.


	20. It's raining.

The waiting room outside the Marshal’s office was cold, bright, and deathly quiet. The chairs were uncomfortable and after twenty minutes of sitting on one, Jade’s butt was already numb. She itched to make conversation, with either Dave or the other pair sitting with them (preferably the former) but the silence of the room weighed down on her, an unspoken ban on noise of any kind. Jade thus simply waited. Pair by pair, they would be called in and spoken to. They would be told individually how they did, but the official announcement would occur at an all-hand-on-deck meeting in the hangar after the meetings were done, to the rest of the staff. Jade could not be more paralysed with nervous excitement.

Jade also felt awkward, thinking back to yesterday. Given the hours of battle, she had nearly forgotten, but for a moment in the drift, when they first connected, she thought she saw her face. It could have been her own memory, but she seemed to have been asleep. Had it been when he’d woken her up? It was a very recent memory, so no wonder it was there but… given so much time to her own thoughts, she couldn’t help but entertain the idea for a moment. Why exactly had it been on his mind? What had made the memory stand out for him, of all things? Jade remembered the incident on the floor right afterwards and had to cough to hide a groan of embarrassment – she needed to get her head out of the clouds! That accident, and whatever it meant or didn’t mean, was not her primary concern right now, as much as she wanted to be concerned about it….

Suddenly, the door opened and the first pair filed out. Jade and Dave were second, and immediately stood. Within moments, they were ushered in, and Jade had to resist clinging to him for support. She was strong enough to handle it formally, and she knew it. The door shut behind them, and they stood side-by-side in front of Marshal Aranea Serket’s desk.

“First of all,” she began carefully, producing two folders from her drawer and opening them, “I’d like to extend my congratulations for making it this far in the process. You two really pulled through and have proven that you work well as a team. Your cooperativeness is impressive, you decision-making is quick in two-minded processes, and you are both physically able, dedicated young people. Of course, your personal attachments to the cause have to be duly taken into consideration, but you seemed to overcome these easily in the simulations and I have confidence in your abilities.”

Jade was the first to thank the Marshal, but before she could even finish her sentence, the Marshal help up a hand to indicate that she should be allowed to finished completely. “I could sit here and give a glowing review of your progress. I am, truthfully and personally, full of nothing but praise and I would be proud to have two young people such as yourselves in my arsenal here. However, my conscience tells me I must try to look past your successes and try to predict the potential of your immediate future.”

Next to her, Jade felt Dave shift forward to rest his elbow s on his knees and his chin on his thumbs, his fingers laced in front of his mouth. The Marshal continued. “You are two young people, neither of you attached, one of you previously so to one of our pilots. That is to say, with a brother/sister team and another that consists of a pair of statistically heterosexual young men, you two are our least stable team. The riskiest choice in the long run, if you will.”  
“I’m not sure I understand,” Dave muttered, his brow creasing. Jade already had an idea, but she was too paralysed by humiliation to even speak it aloud.  
“Let me be more frank then,” said the Marshal, leaning back in her chair and folding her arms. “You may not have noticed, but your entire stay here during this period of trials has been observed. Some of your classmates and two of the instructors were planted by us for this task, as well as various ‘worker bees’ throughout the facility. Your lunchladies, who you might have noticed were especially lenient with your late-night special orders, were even spies for this cause. Bronte was one of these, but when we found she was in danger of getting too involved with group politics, we staged her removal from the Jager program. I apologize if this may have upset you Jade, however it may comfort you to know that none of the trauma she went through was real.”

Jade wasn’t upset. She was furious. At Bronte or the Marshal, she wasn’t sure, but she was ready to deal out a tongue lashing. All the guilt and concern she’d felt for that girl was fake? A pretend memory? How was that even possible? She moved forward in her seat, ready to give the woman a piece of her mind, but she felt Dave’s hand on her arm. She glanced over, begging him to let her, but he shook his head subtly. Now was not the time. Begrudgingly, she sat back.

“Point being, of course, that you were observed. Every time you were together, we knew about it. I mean this in the most professional way possible, so please refrain from any pubescent lingering that may cause you to become distressed, but the limbo in which your relationship hangs is, as crazy as it sounds, a potential setback for this institution.”  
“I object!” Jade announced, frowning at the woman. “What does it matter if we’re…”  
“It matters more than you think. For a drift to go smoothly you need to not surprise or distress each other. Already memories from Dave’s head of my Step-Neic—excuse me, Terezi Scourge, coming through the drift cause certain levels of disturbance on Miss Harley’s end. If you two are in turmoil, it could cause a hiccup during a mission that could cause the destruction of billions of dollars worth of Jager tech.”

Jade sat back and rested her chin on her hand, making a conscious effort to not look in Dave’s direction at all. She couldn’t believe the Marshal just told him that! Like yeah, way to make the turmoil worse, lady. 

“So what do you want us to do? Frankly I felt we were going fine until you showed up and…” Jade waved her hands in a vague gesture.  
“Should your candidacy be considered in league with the others, you must meet a condition,” The marshal said, leaning forward on her elbows to lean on the desk. “You two must agree to completely dash any thoughts on having a relationship that extends beyond a professional friendship. You must discuss and agree on this term mutually and accept the reality of this being the most realistic and safe option. If you so badly wish to pursue whatever it is you wish to pursue instead, that’s your call, but you will do so outside of this Shatterdome. There Is absolutely no place for puppy love in my institution.” The Marshal gave a curt smile and glanced between the two.  
Jade swallowed, and when she spoke, her voice was shaky. “You don’t have the right to—“  
“I have every right, especially with an authority that so far exceeds your own that you’re not even an official person of rank. My job is to make sure that I can trust in the communication and the stability of a relationship between two pilots. I urge you to carefully consider your decision, and when you give me your answer, I want to know that whatever you have decided is something you both truly and strongly believe you can commit to. You have to make me believe that you believe. Hesitation is fatal, do I make myself clear?”  
Jade frowned, slightly confused. The way she said that, it was almost like she was trying to tell them something. God, was there a man with a gun hidden under the desk, waiting to shoot her when they left? No way, she was just being a jerk. “Crystal,” Jade replied hotly.  
“Wonderful,” Serket replied, brushing invisible crumbs off her desk with sudden non-chalance. “Then, you may go. Send the others in, will you?”

\---

The march from the office was very long and very quiet. Jade hadn’t said a word since they’d left the office, and Dave had been too nervous to say so. There was a lot to take in.

Any shred of joy he may have felt at that small hint that maybe Jade reciprocated his (hesitant, at best) feelings was dashed by the precarious repercussions of pursuing such feelings. His mind said that he should stop being stupid – they had known each other for just weeks and they’d both worked too hard to let a few weeks of googly eyes stop that from happening. But with every ounce of his being, Dave was absolutely, 100% sure that he couldn’t wake up every day and effectively pilot a Jager with this girl if he couldn’t… ok this was starting to get gross and needy but he knew that it was insane. Unresolved sexual tension was way more dangerous than a fresh relationship waiting to go awry. If his experience with Terezi was anything to go by, he could still probably get along with her just fine if they didn’t work out. But to not work out they’d need to try in the first place, and e had no idea how to even begin talking about this.

“Dave?” He had been so caught up in his thoughts he hadn’t noticed she’d stopped in the hall. He paused and turned, raising an eyebrow. “Look, I know this is a pretty… heavy situation. I have no idea how you feel about it but I’d just like to say that I want this to be all you. Whatever you decide to tell her, I’ll follow you.”  
Dave sighed and leaned against the wall of the hallway. He was so not prepared for this conversation. If preparedness were a nutsack, his hadn’t dropped. In fact he probably needed testicular retrieval surgery for that metaphorical scrote filler. Wait, ew. “You do get a say, you know. In there you… I dunno you looked like you were gonna say something just before we left. What was it?”  
Jade cautiously settled into place next to him on the wall, shoving her hands in her pockets. The Marshal did sound funny back then, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. “Well, I don’t know, I just… I mean I thought….”  
“Yeah?” Dave prompted, perhaps a little too eagerly.

“I think she’s making a huge mistake. And please excuse my presumptions, I don’t want you to think that I’m under the impression you’re head-over-heels for me or anything like that,” she began nervously. God, where would she get THAT idea? God damn it. “But, forcing us to make a commitment one way or another could be way worse. If we feel forced to act a certain way, the only thing that’s going to do is create walls and boundaries and no room to grow as people. If we let whatever we were going to… do, I guess…. happen naturally? Well, I think it’ll turn out just fine. The only reason we’re going to have trouble with our feelings is if there’s a barrier there stopping us from having those feelings freely. Platonic or not.”

Dave nodded and stared at his feet, trying to contemplate what she said. It made perfect sense. The lady wanted commitment? They could just march right in there and commit to non-committal. Heck, it would probably still get them fired for ‘puppy love’ but god damn it’d be awesome. Like Jack Black said, they’d stick it to the man rock and roll style. Except maybe without the school uniforms. 

“Let’s tell her that then. She can make what she wants of it and if she says no we can kick over a potted plant on our way out the door,” Dave smirked, tilting his head back to rest the crown of his skill on the wall behind him. “I mean, if that’s what you really want?”  
“I’d love to buck the system with you!” Jade replied enthusiastically. Apparently, she was happy they were still cool, and he was too.  
“Well then, let’s go.”

The walk back was short, since they hadn’t walked far, but when they got there the waiting room was empty, as the other pair were inside. They sat down again, waiting in silence. This was definitely an anti-climax to their revolution. Though a question nagged at his mind. He had to know. 

“But uh, if you were to choose…?”  
“Hmm?”  
Dave cleared his throat nervously. “Between the two ultimatums. If you had to choose?”  
“I wouldn’t.” Jade nodded, sure of herself. “I was going to let you do it.”  
“Why me though? You can’t just leave the tough stuff to me, Jade. I’m a weak, poor soul.”  
“Oh shush. I mean, I’d want whatever was best for you. I talked to Terezi before our final exam, you know. She said she hated the memory that she’d disappointed you, because everyone else seemed to as well. So I don’t know, I just thought… I wanted things to go the way you wanted them to, so you wouldn’t be disappointed. I thought I joined this thing so I could help people, but instead I’m ready to put you before every person in this city because I feel like you deserve it for once. Is that bad?”

Dave stared at her for a long moment, slightly gobsmacked. He had no idea she’d been fraternizing with the Scourge, but it made a little bit of sense now. He remembered what the Marshal said and his heart did a rad as hell Ollie. His ribcage was officially just a couple half-pipes for cardiac skateboards. “No. I mean no, it’s not bad. It’s actually… really really damn chill of you. But if I ended up choosing something that you’d be unhappy with, I’d be disappointed anyway.”  
“Oh…. I never thought of that…” Jade looked downright in the dumps all of a sudden.  
“No, no, don’t be upset. Dude, you did the best thing possible. You came up with something that kicked the other two lame ultimatums in their bitch faces. When I’m eighty im still gonna be laughing about that time crazy Jade Harley marched into a US military official’s office and told her to shove it up her ass.” Dave turned in his seat to face her a bit better as he spoke, trying his best to smile.   
“….Crazy Jade, huh?” She glanced up at him with a mischevious look that he’d missed in the past half hour.   
“Man you know it.”  
“But, which one would you have picked?” Jade suddenly asked sitting up straighter, and Dave caught himself up. God, what would he have chosen? He wasn’t sure. Well, he was sure which one he really goddamn wanted but he was also sure that before she’d said all that, all he could think of was getting them into that Jager, no matter what it took. Then she turned out to be the smartest, most creative person he could have possibly hoped to have met and now he had the emotional direction of a mushroom.

He was saved from answering when the door to the Marshal’s office swung open and the last pair came out. They gave Dave and Jade funny looks as they left, but the Marshal spotted them immediately and raised an eyebrow. Dave stood from his seat and offered Jade a hand to stand up. She took it, and he didn’t let go, pulling her along after him into the office and shutting the door behind them.

“Marshal, we’ve made our choice,” Dave said clearly. Neither he nor Jade sat down, prompting the Marshal to stand instead.   
“Well, let’s hear it,” Replied the woman in turn. Dave looked at Jade and gave her a reassuring nod. Her turn to take the stage.

“We believe that you have misjudged us.” Jade began clearly, like she was making a speech rather than an appeal to one person. “If we were to do what you wanted and chosen to stay, it would create emotional barriers that would come between us an our openness and honesty. This would harm our ability to pilot that machine effectively – our relationship must be allowed to develop naturally and take it’s due course, or our careers will be over quickly.”  
“Plus,” Dave added, once she was done, “we have both worked too long and too hard to just walk out. We shouldn’t have to give up our careers because it gets in the way of whatever you do or don’t think we have.”  
“So,” Jade concluded, giving Dave’s had a squeeze, “Our commitment is non-committal. You can take us as we are and make of us what you will, or you will take nothing at all. That’s how we feel we are strongest, and with all due respect Ma’am, you’re making a huge mistake if you think you know what’s better for us.”

The silence that followed their spiel was palpable. Long, piercing gazes were exchanged back and forth across the room. Their hands clenched so tightly their knuckles turned white, and Dave felt like his heartbeat might crack his ribs with all the force it pumped with. For what seemed like hours, the three of them stood in silence, and the two young pilots braced for the tongue lashing that would seal their eviction.

The Marshal threw her head back and laughed.

“Is something funny?” Dave asked cautiously, raising an eyebrow at the woman who had obviously gone mad. Wait, were they being punked? Was Ashton Kutcher gonna jump out from under her desk and shit?  
The Marshal calmed a bit and wiped her eye carefully with one manicured finger. “Well that was quicker than I expected! I thought I could at least have lunch before you came barging in here singing kumbiyah!”  
“Wait, you…. Thought we would do this?” Jade raised her eyebrows, not sure whether to be annoyed, confused, or impressed.  
“Well I hoped so! If you’d picked the life of chastity option I’d have definitely picked the siblings, for sure. Like I said, I needed to believe you were sure about whatever you chose. If this is what you’re sure about, if you think you can develop safely and healthily without endangering yourselves and others in that hunk of steel, well… with a speech like that I think I have to take you seriously. You’d both make passionate little worker bees – I mean that in the motivated way, not the other way.”

“So,” Jade prompted, still completely unsure. “What does this mean? Can we stay?”  
The Marshal sat down at her desk and cracked her knuckles. “Honey, as far as you’re concerned, you’re the guests of honour. Congratulations to you both on becoming this Shatterdome’s newest Rangers.”

Jade’s initial whimper turned into a squeal, then a full on scream. Dave’s ears bled that day, and his ribs also cracked from the bear hug she gave him. The Marshal was grumpily telling them they owed her a coffee run for that, but neither of them were listening and Jade inaudible slur of tearful speech drowned the Marshal out. Dave was totally too cool to cry, but it was definitely raining. 

...Okay, that sounded way more broody and cool when Roy Mustang said it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My gosh. That was possibly the longest i've ever taken to write a chapter for this! It was a pretty delicate ordeal, trying to bring all this will-they-won't-they to a false resolution -- sorry about that, heheheh. Did you think you were going to get one for a moment there? Honestly, i originally planned to unveil their Jager in this chapter, but i think i'll take another chapter or two, to resolve other minor characters, reveal the Jager, and put the lovebirds into some real action before this show's over. As always, thanks for reading and thank you very, very much for your kind comments, and i'll see you next chapter!


	21. Halves of a Whole

“Ready Harley?” Dave’s words echoed both out loud and in her head, both of them standing firm in the cockpit, swaying the Jager against the crushing waves of an off-shore storm. 

Jade nodded, though she didn’t need to. Her arms were held, hands balled into fists, in a defensive position, an exact copy of his posture. “Whenever you are,” she replied, steeling herself. This was it. This was where everything, her education, her ordeals, her passion, came to a head. This was their first real fight with a Kaiju.

The Scourge Trader stood a distance away, unmoving but ready to jump to action if Dave and Jade were overcome. From where they stood, the girls had a fairly good view of the newest Jager: Adagio Redshift.

It was a 2019 model, the Scourge Trader being one year older, the same age as the Apostle had been – both Mark 4s. Adagio was a Mark 5, and it was beautiful. In truth, it had been constructed for some time. At the funeral just days ago, they had observed its lithe, white form standing with many other Jagers off the shore. 

As the kaiju burst from the water, its slick, wet skin rippling under its muscles, its reflection shone perfectly in the Jager’s (for now) flawless, polished body. Long, sturdy arms ended in intricate hands, each finger tipped with a deadly-looking claw, the metal of each criss-crossed with frost of some kind. Immediately the Kaiju charged, and when the Adagio side-stepped it, those claws dug into its flesh with a deep scratch. As pressure on the claws built they clicked inward like a ball-tipped pen and from chambers in each finger, liquid nitrogen spilled into the creature’s wounds, freezing the tissue deep into its side. Already, the monster was debilitated, and from within the cockpit, the two Rangers cheered at each other.

“Oh man that’s cool,” Dave muttered as they manoeuvred the Jager to face their attacker quickly.  
“Focus!” Jade snapped, then added “But yeah that was totally cool,”

The Kaiju favoured its good side, trying not to bend the other half of its body at all now that its flesh was frozen. But while one hand’s claws were spent, the other hand was ready to go. This time the Jager took a step forward and grappled with the creature. Its jaw jutted out forward and from its head, a luminescent bulb dangled precariously. The Jager reached up and took a hold of it with its spent hand, some residual chemical leaking onto it and freezing it also. They used this hold to bring the Kaiju’s head down to meet the other hand, its claws grasping under the monster’s jaw and sending shocks of electricity through the creature’s body.

It wailed terribly, muscles convulsing violently, so that they could only hold on for a few seconds before its gargantuan form twitched free of their hold and reeled back, wheezing and snarling in fury. Then it was on the offensive.

It charge the short distance, she the white Jager bent forward, exposing the top of its head to the beast. Resting above the red visor on the Jager’s skull were two sharp protrusions, built into plating that reacted with the internal spine of the machine so that, when the kaiju’s belly flesh met the ear-like appendages, the steel vertebrae in the Jager compressed together, its hydraulic suspension and spacious plating allowing the Jager to safely take the force of the impact while doing more damage to the Kaiju than it did to the Jager. Together, the Rangers stomped a foot forward and and twisted their head, the Kaiju forced to move with them or be turned further. They used this balance displacement to flip the kaiju into the water. And then, the real grappling started.

For nearly two hours, blows were exchanged between the battling behemoths, and Dave and Jade were not skimping on trying out their new toys. From inside the right forearm of the creature, a blade slide out over the nitrogen hand and locked into place. However, it was too long. It weighed down the Jager considerably and the fresh pilots had some difficulty. While weights in the other arm balanced it while it was sheathed, when it was out they were not used to the centre of gravity being shifted. As such, they struggled to land blows on the Kaiju.

The creature climbed on the Jager, scrambling up its body and making scratches and blemishes on the white plating. Its severed globe dripped Kaiju Blue over the bright red visor and it brought its foot down on the blade. As it descended, the extended blade caught on the bottom of the semi-shallows and snapped in half, unable to offer itself support due to its weight.

“Shit!” Both rangers shouted at the same time, panic settling in. Were they allowed to let that happen? Though, to their surprise, when they lifted their arm free of the Kaiju’s weight, the arm was much easier to move – lighter and able to make full use of the Adagio Redshift’s advantage for speed. They drew back their elbow and drove the ‘modified’ blade into the Kaiju’s shoulder, pushing it through its collarbone and down into its chest. They used the blade to cut its way out, leaving a gaping, sagging gash where half its shoulder and arm hung loosely. With one arm useless, the kaiju had already lost.

The kaiju grasped them with its good arm and swung them around, clinging to their back and slipping its arm around the Jager’s neck. Immediately, the two leaned forward, shifting the weight of the beast onto their back to lift its feet. “Ugh… burn it!” Dave shouted, and they reached up to the control switched, flicking the command appropriate. Pressed against their, back, the Kaiju couldn’t get away before, from valves in the Adagio’s back that swivelled to control direction, bright, fuelled flames erupted like symmetrical Bunsen burners. The kaiju reeled backward, leaving the two parallel lines of valves to spit their fire for a few moments more before the Jager swivelled to face their opponent once more.

The rangers stood while the kaiju stumbled and screeched, twitching its gored side and hunching over its hideous burn in an effort to recuperate.  
Jade huffed, her body drenched in sweat. “We’ve got one more toy, wanna finish it off?”  
“Yeah. I’m hungry,” Dave shouted back, readying himself with her in synchronisation.  
Jade laughed melodically, the way she always did, and rolled her eyes. “This is our rookie run, you know. Don’t get cocky just yet.”  
“Honey, I was cocky before you could piss straight,” Dave replied calmly, though his amusement travelled clearly through their mental link.  
“I’m not even gonna humour you by telling you why that’s dumb,” Jade replied, and then straightened her stance. “Okay, here he comes!”

As the kaiju hobbled at them and draw back its good fist, readying to swing a blow at them, they raised a forearm to block the strike. As the Jager rocked form the force of blocking it, they brought up a knee and took hold on the Kaiju’s good shoulder, using it to pull it inward and against the knee of the Adagio. This action was aided by another burst from the valves of fire, shooting backward like a pair of flaming orange wings and propelling the machine forward with a burst of speed. The kaiju grasped the Jager’s neck, trying to pull them off itself, but it was too late. A boom sounded, and from a huge barrel in the knee of the Jager, an explosive round blasted a hole straight into the Kaiju’s gut. The life faded from its eyes quickly, and they let go of the beast’s shoulder, allowing it to fall heavily into the ocean.

“Niiiicely done!’ cooed Vriska’s voice over their comms. Jade leaned forward and gave Dave thumbs up with a massive grin, the green visor of their helmets not long enough to cover her smile. “Gotta tell ya though, your poor hunk a’ metal ain’t exactly pristine anymore.

While hovering helicopters lowered to fly them back to the Shatterdome, anyone looking could see that the machine was obviously worse for wear. Its white colour was like a canvas now, the painting was the scars of battle. Bright blue Kaiju blood dripped down the canine horns atop its skull, leaving streaks of it along the white body. Scratches across its body painted brown and grey marks, the exposed steel closed with sand between the layers of paint. Sea grime and flora were stuck in its joints, but most importantly was its logo: a green dog, its head raised in a howl, with a bright red sword through its chest. This mark, painted onto the left side of the Jager’s chest, was still well intact. 

To its proud new owners though, the Adagio Redshift was even more amazing than before.

\---

When they finally emerged from the cockpit, and their crew had extracted the green plating off of them, they were met with a crowded room full of smiling faces. The Scourges had returned first and they stood together in the crowd, which parted to let Dave and Jade through. 

“You did good,” the raspy voice of Terezi said, clapping Jade on the back. Every muscle in her body ached, but she tried not to flinch.  
“Thanks… sorry you guys didn’t get to have much fun out there,” Jade apologized, putting a hand on her shoulder.  
Terezi merely shrugged and nudged her along after Dave, who was further along the line of people. “It’s 'kay, I get to do that stuff all the time! We thought we’d give you a head start.” The last thing Jade spotted before she turned to catch the tail-end of Dave and Vriska’s conversation was Terezi’s mischievous grin. 

“Sorry buddy,” Vriska was saying with a non-committal shrug. “I’ve got a date tonight. Looks like you guys are gonna have to party hard without me.”  
“A date? You?” Dave raised his eyebrows. “Has hell frozen over?”  
“Quite the contrary, Strider,” Kanaya chipped in. Jade noticed now that she’d been standing just behind Vriska in the crowd, and was looking quite proud of herself. “It’s become a hot, saucy love cave that can only be sated by the gentle caress of—“  
Dave made a show of gagging. “Oh god yeah okay you can stop you’ve gotten rid of me I’m going just please, please stop with the erotica recitals…” Dave turned and continued down the people path, followed closely by Jade, who was struggling to contain her tears of laughter. Kanaya shrugged with a smirk that struggled to contain her own laugh, and Jade gave them both thumbs up before moving along.

Rose and John, now apparently inseparable, stood in line to congratulate the two. Rose was telling Dave about people’s reactions to the broadcast, and Jade leaned in to give John and hug.  
“Thanks for helping us out so much!” She shouted above all the noise in the room. John smiled and shrugged.  
“Hey, what are friends for? Besides, Dave still owes me for the glasses thing so whats this on top of everything else?”  
“The glasses thing?” Jade asked, frowning in confusion. “You mean mine? I thought he said you owed him a favour?”  
John stared for a moment, as if realizing he’d said something he shouldn’t have. But Jade just laughed and punched Dave in the arm lightly. He looked between them in confusion, raising an eyebrow in question. “Yeah, well now you know! Isn’t he just a model Samaritan?”  
“More like a model meddler, but still. Thank you anyway, John.”  
“Anytime, Jade! We’ll meet you guys at Terezi’s later, yeah?”  
Jade nodded her agreement, gave Rose a quick hug, and then moved along, suddenly eager to get out of the room.

After a few more minutes of shaking hands, thank-yous and hugs, they made it out into the hall to the upper hangar, where the Marshal waited for them.

“Well,” she began, beckoning for them to follow as she started off down the hall. The corridor was a circular path that ran around the upper level of the Shatterdome. Against the far wall were doors to service rooms, equipment storage, and dorms across from every docking station for the Jagers. “That went better than expected. You have both done very well – congratulations.”

The walk was short; she stopped only two docking stations down, stepping next to an open door. The smell of fresh paint and cleaning products hit their senses as soon as they approached. The Marshal gestures across the hall to a pair of white automatic doors, like the ones they had just exited, that led to another dock for a Jager. Behind that door was a small hallway with preparation equipment for their suits, storage for the skin-tight jumpsuits worn underneath, and a door at the back that took them directly into the cockpit in their Jager’s head. 

“This,” she began, “Is where you Jager will be stored from now on. We used a temporary dock today so we could preserve the real one and keep it clean of fanfare. And this,” she gestured inside the door, “is your new dorm room.

Jade stepped in first, obviously the more curious of the two. The door had been painted with their Jager’s logo and name, in a font like a typewriter, all in caps. Inside, the room was painted a dark grey, and was much larger than her old dorm. On one side, a bunk bed with a king single on top and a double underneath stood tall, and on the other two adjacent desks with a standard issue computer and basic stationery sat waiting for each of them. The back wall was completely storage, with four sliding doors that opened up to a wardrobe with hangers, sets of drawers, and space on an upper shelf for bulkier, non-clothing items like empty suitcases.

Another door, this one also painted with their logo, slid open to a small but functional bathroom, with cabinets for storage and a shower, toilet and washbasin set into a counter, all spotless. This room was painted white instead of the grey inside, and since they were on the highest level of the Shatterdome, the bathroom was lit by a skylight during the day.

“The beds are made but you’re going to have to cart all your stuff upstairs yourselves. Grab a few friends if you like, I don’t care. Housekeeping comes through every Monday and Thursday at around 10am, so don’t leave anything lying around that might freak out my staff, got it?” The Marshal leaned in the doorway. Dave was in the room now, taking it all in as Jade had.  
“Yes ma’am,” Jade nodded, since Dave seemed to be off in his own world.  
“And you still owe me coffee runs for the rest of your careers. Black, one sugar, got it?” The marshal didn’t wait for a reply this time, making her way down the hall and leaving the kids to take in the room.

“Dibs first shower,” Dave said as soon as she was out of earshot. Jade rolled her eyes and waved her hand in approval. “Oh, and are you still cool to head to TZ’s place tonight?”  
“Yeah. Top or bottom?” Jade asked distractedly, sitting down on the lower bed.  
“Excuse me?” Dave asked, pausing to look at her with an accusatory gaze.  
Jade scoffed and tossed a pillow at him. “The bunk, you asshole!” She was laughing by the time she finished her sentence, however, and so was he. He flopped down onto the mattress beside her, spreading his arms out across the mattress. “This one. It’s bigger, and I need the extra room for my ego.”  
Jade flopped backwards to stare at the bunk above her, racing the lines in the wood with her eyes. “I don’t think even Adagio’s big enough to hold your ego,” she said softly.

“Oh man, how cool is she though?” Dave suddenly said, the almost childlike joy audible in his voice.  
“Mm,” Jade smiled fondly, her cheeks making her eyes squint. “Definitely looks cool. Looks like a….”  
“A puma?” Dave suggested, turning his head to look at her.  
“Well I was gonna say a dog, actually…”  
“Oh, yeah you’re right. That’s totally a dog. But man those claws though….” Dave looked at his own hands as if it helped him remember what they felt like.

“Hey,” Jade suddenly said in a tone that indicated a change of subject. “I didn’t see your Bro there just before. Did you get to say hi?”  
Dave didn’t reply for a moment, still staring at his hand. When he did, his voice was soft. “Bro’s gone home.”  
Jade sat up, leaning forward to see his face better. “What, when? Why didn’t you tell me?”  
Dave shrugged. “Not a big deal.” When Jade didn’t look convinced, he tried to smile reassuringly. “Really, it isn’t. I’m happy for him. I’m not gonna be around to translate for him anymore, and there’s nothing for him here. He’s gonna go home and make a life from himself. Not gonna have to sit around here with constant reminders of…”  
Jade nodded, indicating he didn’t need to continue. Gently, she put her arm around his shoulders and sat there with him in silence, for as long as he needed her to. 

Finally, after a good twenty minutes, he spoke. Silence made his voice groggy, and he had to clear his throat to not sound like a frog. “So. Jealous of Terezi, huh?”  
Jade felt her face heat up, and she pressed her lips together. “And here I was thinking battling a monster the size of a skyscraper would make you forget about that.”  
“Mmmhm.”  
“Well,” she huffed, drawing her knees closer to her chest, “I’d be a little disappointed if the news was a surprise to you.”  
“Okay, what if it was a relief?”  
Jade tensed, not a muscle in her body moving for a good few seconds. When she spoke, her words were careful. “That would make me feel a lot better about the whole thing, I think.”  
“I see,” he muttered, then, to her surprise, began to laugh. It was a soft chuckle at first, and then a more pronounced giggle. 

“You better not be laughing at me, Strider!” Jade warned, though by now he was laughing so uncontrollably he had to rest his forehead on her shoulder while he calmed his laughter. “Look, if you’re not going to have a shower I’m gonna,” She warned, which made him finally sober a bit. He lifted his head, wiped his eye, she sat up straight, now sideways and facing her.

“Remember that time with the bleeding elbow?”  
Jade stared at his suspiciously. “In the dojo?”  
“Yeah. Remember how the alarm went off?”  
“Of course, Dave. What’s your point?”  
“If that hadn’t happened, I think you should know that i would have been a total creep and done something embarrassing back then if it weren’t for that siren.”  
Jade stared at him like a rabbit caught in headlights. “..Really?”  
“And the other day when I came in to wake you up and then you kamikaze’d me into—“ He was cut off by Jade flapping her arms, seeming to have remembered something.  
“I thought I saw myself asleep! In the drift! That’s where it was from!” She declared as if she’d discovered the missing link in the evolutionary chain or something.  
“Surpriiiise,” Dave waved is hands in a mock fanfare. “See? You ain’t got shit to worry about, being all embarrassed and stuff.”

Jade sighed, slumping where she sat. “That makes me feel a lot better somehow, but I kinda wish you’d just done it back in the dojo!”  
“What,” Dave cleared his throat to stop it from cracking in the least cool manner. “For real?”  
“Yeah, well,” she looked up at him from under her lashes, a glint of mischief in her eye the only warning he got before she grasped him by the collar of his dorky wetsuit thingy and pulled him into the most welcome, sloppy, amateur kiss that ever got done.

It didn’t last long – first kisses never do. You gotta pull away before your brain catches up to your face and you start actually thinking about it too much. But when they separated, they were both grinning like idiots. 

“See! That wasn’t hard, we could have avoided so much of…” she waved her hands vaguely in an attempt to express awkwardness.  
“Nah, the,” he copied her movements, earning him a playful nudge” was the funnest part.”  
“Not for the people who had to watch! Now go have a shower.”  
“Ouch, she thinks I stink.”

Dave stood up and stretched, his fingertips nearly brushing the low-ish ceiling. It took him the short walk to the bathroom door to realise their stocks were as low as they’d been when the Marshal told them they needed to get their shit from downstairs.  
“What?” Jade had noticed he’d stopped to think on something.  
Dave couldn’t believe he’d forgotten so quickly. “Fuck. Don’t have our stuff.”  
“Oh no! I can run down and grab yours if—“ She stopped when he began flapping his hand dismissively.  
“Nah, screw it. M’ goin to sleep.”  
“Really? Whoa, okay,” She had to dodge his shades then, for as he fell he hooked a finger under the bridge and flicked them aside just in time to save them from being crushed between his face and the mattress. Carefully, she picked them up and folded them aside.

Jade stood up and searched the apartment. Apparently, some things had been taken into account – there were towels, and toothpaste. All the necessities, including fluid and a case for contacts in the cabinet. She fought off sleep as she gently pinched the lenses out of her eyes and set them into the case. When she was done, she plodded back into the room.

The form of the bed was easy enough to find, once she tripped over it of course. She groped the vague direction of the frame for the ladder, squinting in an attempt to see. She was stopped by Dave grasping her sleeve and tugging her down onto the bed, mumbling something or other into the mattress.

“What’d you say?” she asked, and thought for a moment that he was already asleep before his delayed answer came.  
“I said, I’ll take the top bunk so you don’t go axing yourself like that.”  
Jade smiled, closing her eyes. “I’ll think of an argument for that in the morning.”  
“Good plan,” he mumbled, his back heaving in a short huff of a laugh.  
“What, you’re saying you would rather wait than to hear my wisdom?”  
“Well, considering it’s not like sleep is a years long perilous journey through time and space from which neither of us will return the same, I think I’ll survive the night.”  
Jade giggled sleepily. “Where’d that come from?”  
“I haven’t the faintest idea, it just kinda slipped forth from my consciousness all cryptic and shit. Probably makes sense in a parallel universe or something I don’t even care.” The longer his sentences went on, the more drawled and mumbled his speech became. Jade reached for his hand.  
“Go to sleep, Dave.”  
“…'Kay.” 

Jade smiled to herself, glad suddenly of how easy this was. She had a lot to be grateful for right now, but the best part was the ease of which they were around each other even after they’d finally taken the plunge. The Marshal would probably think they lied about to ‘natural course’ shit just to get the job, but after all that had happened, she felt they both deserved it.

Thinking back on all those years, she’d never truly been living. She’d just been following this one goal and expected to reach it and follow that blindly until she died. Jade was surprised, in hindsight, that she’d wondered why she had trouble making friends. She had been withdrawn, afraid and too determined to realize she was sprinting through her life with her blinkers on. Dave, John, Rose – all of her new friends, had made her slow down just enough, just in time.

As for Dave, well, she couldn’t really speak for him. When she’d first met him he was gruff and authoritative and she would have never expected… this. Thinking back on her first impression of him, it was almost amazing how different he’d turned out to be. He wasn’t this serious, stoic guy who knew what he was doing – it was only what he pretended to be, to hold himself together. Truly, he was a silly, dorky guy who talked too much when he got carried away and had no idea where he was going. But he’d found direction and helped her find hers along the way, and when she thought about that, Jade realized that their closeness was the least surprising outcome ever.

She could go on like this for hours, about John and Rose, about the sisters, about the Marshal, about every moment from her time in the Shatterdome, but she was so tired. She was too tired to care, when she could instead curl up with her best friend and take a well-deserved nap. 

And so within minutes, she was asleep as well, and they both slept soundly for hours, not even waking when John and Rose came looking for them and discovered them curled around each other. Rose had closed the door before John could snap a pic of the happy new team, and they’d decided if Jade and Dave could ditch Terezi's to sleep, so could they. Rose had no doubts that Karkat and Terezi could entertain each other contentedly enough. There would be plenty of time for them all to drink and be merry in the future, and they were right – a fruitful career lay ahead of all of them, and now that they’d become whole there was no stopping them. 

Their Jager stood sentinel in the massive hangar just meters from where they slumbered, ready to fight hurricanes at a moment’s notice. Nothing could stop them now. When the monsters came from the depths, they would be ready for them.

\---END---

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, what a whirlwind this has been! I'm filled with pride for myself, because this is the first work i've ever completed. I suppose in the past i lacked the motivation of looking at the DaveJade tags and seeing only one-shots or novellas of GamRezi in which DaveJade appears for three seconds in someones flashback. I wrote this, then, for anyone who's ever struggled to actually find DaveJade in the DaveJade tag, and i think after this, i will continue to do so.
> 
> It's time for thanks, i think. I know i say it every other chapter, but i can't thank my readers enough. Your kind words keep me going, they always have. This fic was a bit of an ass-pull and i could think of many things i could have done better, but the fact that so many of you enjoyed it means its good enough for me. Every time someone tells me i made them laugh or squeal or stay up until the early hours of the morning reading this, it makes me happier than you could possibly know. I'm a little jealous, too, because i can't read what i write in the same way you all can. So thank you to you readers, the ones who've been with me since chapter one or the ones who came somewhere along the way, or the ones who will find this for the first time three months from now when their tireless search for complete DaveJade with more than one chapter brings them to fics like this one -- i've done it many times, and i hope i can help people continue to find something they'll enjoy in the future. You're all important and thank you so, so much.
> 
> Obligatorily, thanks to the original creators of this material. I know some of you have never seen Pacific Rim, but I urge you to see it. Del Toro is an amazing director, the team behind it did an wonderful job, and yes it's a bit of a silly film that in some way will make you recall being a ten year old who made their lego robots fight, but that is never a bad thing. Awesome silly movies are amazing.
> 
> And thanks to Andrew Hussie. If i'm proud of myself for writing this tiny story, you can imagine that he seems like a god of patience and perseverance to me. I don't imagine that many Pac Rim fic readers ventured into this and saw it to the end, but if any of you make it here, Homestuck is a comic that changed my life and brought me a huge amount of joy, and new friends. Perhaps that time is over, when everyone read Homestuck and fans were active and sought each other out, but the comic will never change and it's truly an innovative masterpiece of storytelling. If you have the time and patience, i promise you will be impressed.
> 
> Now that this is all over, i'm already considering my next move. Crossover, i think, are a really attractive concept to me. I was poking and prodding at the idea of a Soul Eater crossover, or more of an original supernatural/superpower themed thing with politics thrown in. Like a cross between X Men and Game of Thrones, i suppose, but my own world where i have a little bit more freedom to do what i like. I could do dragons or Disney or Academy themed things. I could finish my older fics, though i've grown since i started those, and i don't feel right now that i could bring forth enough passion and faith in them myself to do them justice. Where i go from here is something i'll have to think on, and if enough motivation strikes me, i'll go ahead and do it. You might see something new from me later today, or in a month, or in twelve months, but i hope it's sooner rather than later. In any case -- I hope i get as much support in whatever i choose to do as you've all given me here with this story.
> 
> I'm a little sad to see it go, but i'm happy that i finally finished Halves. With any luck, you won't see the last of me, and whatever i do next will hopefully be better. I can learn form my mistakes here, and work on improving, and Halves has been a learning curve that is very dear to me. If you have comments, suggestions, ideas for new fics or anything you'd like to say, i'm always, always happy to hear what you guys think. I'll catch you guys later, and as always, i hope you enjoyed Halves of a Whole.


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